Dublin water restrictions to continue until Thursday at least

Water restrictions in Dublin are set to continue until at least Thursday, November 7, Dublin City Council said today.

Restrictions will operate from 8pm each evening to 7am the following morning.

"We are reviewing the water supply situation on a daily basis and a decision will be taken when appropriate, to change the current level of restrictions," said a statement.

"We wish to once again urge consumers all over the Dublin region to conserve water, in an effort to assist us in restoring levels in our treated water reservoirs to normal.

"It should be stressed that there is no problem with the quality of treated drinking water or with storage levels of untreated/raw water."

An analysis of the current situation carried out at Ballymore Eustace Water Treatment Plant, has shown a stabilisation in production at the plant.

However, despite this stabilisation, production at the plant is still at a level well below that required to meet demand.

Storage levels at our treated water reservoirs remain at a low level.

Dublin City Council engineers and central laboratory technicians are working 24 hours a day to identify the cause of the problem and to mitigate the effects.

"We are asking people to visit www.taptips.ie for easy water saving tips," said Dublin City Council.

"While we will make every effort possible to maintain pressures during peak demand periods, pressures will be reduced during the times indicated above.

"This will result in lower pressures and loss of supply across the entire Dublin region.

"The four Dublin Local Authorities apologise for any inconvenience caused by these restrictions and will do everything possible to minimise their scale and duration."

"The Dublin Local Authorities greatly appreciate the efforts people and businesses are making to conserve water."

Dublin restaurants say the water shortages are making it very hard to keep doing business.

The restrictions have gone on for two nights and may continue well into next week.

More than 1.5 million people are affected by the shortages across Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow following a problem at a water treatment plant.

Many restaurants and hotels are coming up with contingency plans for the busy weekend period.

Head chef at the Camden Kitchen restaurant in central Dublin, Paraic Hayden, says they need to know what is happening.

"I think communication could certainly be better," he said.

"I think that certainly on the first night restaurants, hotels, bars - places that would definitely be open - should at the very least have got a letter or phone call saying the water was going off".

"It shouldn't be up to us to look into the information on whether or not it's going to happen".

"We want to know how long, we want to know when, we want to be in a situation where we can accommodate it."