Water supply fears as freeze relents

THE BIG freeze may have given way to torrential rain but the country’s drinking water supply is still under threat due to burst mains pipes and over-usage during the cold spell.

Many of the country’s reservoirs ran dangerously low during the cold spell while others were frozen over. Meanwhile, water demand soared by 25% as householders left taps running overnight to help prevent frozen pipes.

There was localised flooding in Blackpool on Cork city’s northside yesterday afternoon and more flooding was expected elsewhere in the south last night as due to a combination of rainfall and snow melt, up to 55mm of rainfall was expected.