Thirty-three Irish towns and villages will continue to discharge raw sewage after 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has put a severe strain on Irish Water's finances, the Water Advisory Body has said.

The lack of progress on fixing Ireland's outdated water infrastructure means 19 large towns and cities did not meet EU standards set to protect the environment, a report has found.

The Water Advisory Body (WAB), an independent statutory body established in 2018, said that in addition to the 19 towns and cities cited, a further 33 towns and villages will continue discharging raw sewage after 2021 because they will still not have a wastewater treatment plant.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has put a severe strain on Irish Water's finances, WAB said.

Chair of WAB Paul McGowan said: "From our discussions with Irish Water, WAB notes that the operational response required to manage the system throughout the current pandemic has put pressure on Irish Water’s costs. 

"While the impacts on operational performance have been limited, there will clearly be a financial impact. We also note the regrettable delay to some important developments including the introduction of a new system of charging for non-domestic customers and the excess usage charge for domestic customers."

Of particular concern to the WAB are the delays arising to Irish Water’s capital expenditure programme, Mr McGowan said.

"With many projects suspended as a result of the onset of the pandemic, the concern would be that this will have a knock-on impact on Irish Water’s delivery timescales and the costs associated with such delays," he added.

In its quarterly report, WAB selected 11 areas in grading Irish Water, including leakages, water mains replacement and boil water notices.

WAB said that Irish Water acknowledges that leakage from its “water supply networks is at unacceptable levels and well above international norms”, while there was "a continued and disappointing drop-off in the number of leak repairs completed under the scheme since mid-2016".

It said it was concerned about the trends for long-term boil water notices highlighted by the EPA and that it will continue to monitor Irish Water’s progress.

In relation to urban wastewater treatment, WAB said that overall compliance is very low. 

Over half of the 75% non-compliance can be attributed to the wastewater treatment plant at Ringsend in Dublin, the report said.

Despite the criticisms, WAB praised Irish Water for having plans in place for the drinking water supplies that are currently included on the so-called 'remedial action list'.

According to the EPA, the remedial action list is a register of public water supplies with the most serious deficiencies and known to be most at risk, and it requires Irish Water to take corrective action to ensure the safety and security of the supplies. 

Since the original list was published in 2008, 93%, or 314, of supplies have been removed from the original list because the necessary remedial actions have been completed. At the end of July, 52 supplies remain on the list which collectively supply water to 1.1m consumers, according to the EPA.

In its report, WAB said that Irish Water replaced or rehabilitated 407km of water mains in 2018 and 333km in 2019, a substantial increase compared to 2017.

Mr McGowan said that WAB considers it important "to provide a balanced perspective on Irish Waters’ performance and to call it as we see it".