Locals angry at Irish Water’s silence over days-long supply stoppage

People living in a village in East Cork are furious with the lack of information from Irish Water about why they were left without a supply for several days. 

Water tankers moved into Ballycotton yesterday to provide drinking waters to residents, while the county council, which is now acting as agents for Irish Water, deployed three further tankers to bring water from Little Island to fill up their local reservoir.

Council sources estimated it would take up to 15 tanker-loads to fill the Ballycotton reservoir, which is normally fed from another reservoir at Kilva, halfway between Saleen and Cloyne.

Ballycotton suffered because of problems with a pumping station at Kilva and breaks in an ageing main.

Mossie Tatten, who runs the Blackbird Bar in Ballycotton, said he could not run the ice machines or coffee machines and that the local national school had to close because there was no water to flush the toilets.

“We got five-gallon drums of water off friends out in the countryside to keep us going,” said Mr Tatten. “We can’t get any information about what’s going on. It’s not funny having to pay for water when you can’t get any.”

Stephen Belton, general manager at the Bayview Hotel, said he hoped to have a supply back before the weekend, “when the hotel would be fully booked”.

Council workers were trying to reconnect houses but were running into problems with air locks. Houses on higher ground may not be reconnected for some time.

Local Fine Gael councillor Michael Hegarty said people were getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of information they were getting from Irish Water, and not just in Ballycotton.

“[Former Fine Gael minister] Fergus O’Dowd was right when he said earlier this week that Irish Water needs to make itself more accessible to the public.”

On Monday, the council is to discuss a motion from Sinn Féin councillor Pat Bukley that proper communications be set up between Irish Water and local public representatives who are also having difficulty getting information from it.