Cork's water woes: Residents buy bottled water as Uisce Éireann struggles to repair network

Recent years have seen significant investment, but more is needed, writes Eoin English

On the left is a sample of clean bottled water, while on the right is a sample of water from a bakery in Cork City. Picture: David Creedon

It was meant to herald a new era in Cork’s water infrastructure. A €40m investment in a purpose-built “state of the art” water treatment plant to replace an ageing Victorian-era facility that was at risk of being placed on an environmental watchlist.

But instead, the Lee Road treatment plant, commissioned in 2022 and which supplies some 70% of the drinking water to Ireland’s second city, has become inextricably linked to one of the biggest regional headaches facing Uisce Éireann today, with discoloured, dirty water pouring from taps in thousands of homes across the city’s northside and in parts of the southside supplied by the plant.