Town loses 200,000 gallons of water a day via leaks

ALMOST 200,000 gallons of water a day are being lost in a north Cork town because of leaking pipes, it has estimated.

Leaks from pipes, including those in newly constructed estates, are exacerbating Cork County Council’s attempts to restore water to elevated parts of Mallow.

Aidan Weir, the council’s most senior engineer in the region, said a number of the 500-plus new houses at Castlepark and College Woods were experiencing leaks at valves and stopcocks and this was draining the town’s supply.

But it’s not just houses. Mr Weir said 13 separate leaks were identified in one commercial premises alone in the town last Tuesday.

Council crews are doing their best to make speedy repairs, but around 200 houses on the northern side of the town at Spa Glen, St Anthony’s Park and Ironmines still haven’t a full supply restored.

Mr Weir said he hoped the to have that problem rectified by the weekend.

Around 1.2 million gallons of water is being used in the town each day, which is full capacity.

Mr Weir appealed to people to check their homes and premises for leaks and to conserve water as much as possible.

He said the water level in the reservoir serving the town is still low and the only way to get it back to a proper level was to repair as many leaks as possible in a short time.

However, he added that a new supply to the town should be installed by the summer of 2012.

“The Department of the Environment has approved a €4 million scheme to bring water from Doneraile into the town. We hope to appoint a contractor for that scheme soon and start construction in the spring,” Mr Weir said.

Meanwhile, Mallow town councillor Jerry Mullally said a major overhaul of the town’s water pipes was needed to ensure a lot less water escaped through leaks.

“It’s a big problem and we’ve seen it again with the recent cold weather that pipes are bursting in new estates because they’re not buried deep enough underground,” Mr Mullally said.