Council taps into funding to replace water mains

Emergency funding has been guaranteed for a West Cork tourist town which experienced serious water supply disruptions throughout the summer.

Some hoteliers and B&B operators, it emerged, were forced to give refunds to tourists due to mains water interruptions.

The problem in Bantry, however, has persisted for a number of years.

Locally-based county councillor Mary Hegarty was yesterday hopeful water supply breakages issues would “shortly be a thing of the past”.

The town, she said, had been blighted by numerous water supply interruptions during the year, but matters came to a head during the peak tourist season.

“The situation became so bad between July and August some hoteliers and B&B owners were forced to give refunds,” she said.

The local Newtown water main, which stretches three miles between Bantry and Ballylickey, was particularly badly hit.

Katherine Walshe, the county council’s director of water services, said the main was laid down in 1962 and is now well past its sell-by date.

She said council records showed that, on average, in recent years, the mains cracked six times per year.

However, between mid-July and mid-Aug alone, it broke five times.

“This was particularly inconvenient, as it was the height of the tourist season. Many householders were affected and they were particularly irate. I received numerous complaints; in one case, the water was off for 24-hours,” Cllr Hegarty said.

Some businesses complained they had suffered water outages for four weekends in a row and owners threatened to withhold paying their water charges if something wasn’t done, the Fine Gael councillor said.

Ms Walshe, meanwhile, said that while there were 140 sections of mains across the county in need of urgent repair, the local authority had prioritised the replacement of the Newtown main. She said approval had been given for the work by the Department of the Environment. The council is putting out the project to tender and Ms Walshe said she expected to have a contractor on site shortly.

Cllr Hegarty said this was welcome news.

“If the current situation was to continue, it could do untold damage to our tourist season. We are very lucky to get this project fast-tracked,” she said.

In the meantime, Cllr Hegarty insisted that the council make arrangements to tanker in water, should there be further disruption, until the upgrading is complete.

Ms Walshe said: “In the meantime, we will continue to closely monitor the situation to minimise disruption to customers. In addition, if a break occurs, Cork County Council will make a water supply available at a designated location, where customers may fill containers.”