Sewage rising in back gardens in Raharney

Raw sewage is rising up in the gardens of a housing estate in Raharney – a problem that has also occurred in a number of other estates in the same area, Cllr Emily Wallace has told officials at the December meeting of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad.

“There’s septic tanks: the septic tanks are filling up… people can’t flush their toilets – otherwise it’s raising in their back gardens,” said Cllr Wallace, stating that in this day and age, that was not a proper service.

Her motion related to Village Close in Raharney and her request was that the district contact Irish Water and ask it to have the sewage issue resolved.

The written response from the district stated that the Uisce Éireann Operations Department had confirmed that the Village Close, Raharney is was not an Uisce Éireann asset, and so the district’s housing department would make arrangements for the treatment system to be emptied.

“The Council is engaging with Uisce Éireann in relation to this location and other legacy issue,” the response concluded.

Cllr Wallace noted that there have been similar issues at Killucan Manor Drive and Ashcroft Park.

The Fine Gael woman was backed by Cllr Denis Leonard of Labour, who admitted he hated knocking on doors in that area, as he has no answers when asked how is the sewage problem to be sorted.

“It’s very hard to do anything for them when no one will answer the question about who is responsible,” Cllr Leonard said.

Also in support was Cllr David Jones, saying the problem in the area is so bad that at Ashcroft Park, sewage has even flowed into the little playground area installed by the residents association.

Cllr Mick Dollard said that the problem was actually the responsibility of the housing section of Westmeath County Council.

“End of story!” he declared, pointing out that it was a local authority estate, and all the people there were tenants of Westmeath County Council.

“It’s the housing section’s responsibility,” he said going on to state that the council needs to source capital funding to deal with the issue.

Director of services, Deirdre Reilly, agreed that it was a legacy issue, and told Cllr Wallace that the housing department is arranging emptying on a regular basis but that was not satisfactory.

“We can’t be leaving it to the point that you’ve described,” she said.