Dubliners told to conserve water after supply switched off for works

A general view of water dripping out of a kitchen tap.

Uisce Éireann, formerly Irish Water, have warned people in the north of Dublin to "conserve water" after works caused a switch-off of supply on Saturday night.

A major new pipeline between Ballycoolin Reservoir and Swords is being developed to secure the water supply for over 350,000 customers across the north of the capital.

That involved the switching off of the water supply from 1am on Sunday.

Residents in the affected regions were warned of the switch-off in advance.

An Uise Éireann spokesperson said: "Water services crews worked throughout the night and have successfully completed the connection works and water is beginning to slowly return. Crews will continue to closely monitor the local network to ensure any issues such as leaks or bursts are quickly identified and fixed until water supplies are fully restored.

"Today especially, Uisce Éireann is appealing to all customers in North County Dublin to help conserve water where possible to allow the network to fully recharge and enable the water supply to return to impacted customers as quickly as possible."

The group suggested a number of tactics for customers to help secure the supply.

These included: 

• Not running taps needlessly.
• taking showers instead of baths.
• Postponing the use of dishwashers and washing machines where possible

William McKnight, Uisce Éireann, commented: "We understand that this necessary outage may be disruptive to the local community and we are continuing to work hard to restore normal water supply as quickly as possible while monitoring the existing water main closely to ensure any issues are identified immediately and rectified.

“This is a hugely important project for the people of North County Dublin and for the wider GDA in terms of delivering a sufficient and sustainable water supply to all."

Affected regions include: Swords, Santry, Malahide, Portmarnock, Kinsealy, Ballyboughal, Lissenhall, Donabate, Portrane, Turvey, Loughshinny, Palmerstown (Fingal), Rush, Lusk and nearby M1 service stations and surrounding areas.