John Gibbons: Even rainy Ireland is not immune to water shortages

We use expensively treated drinking water to flush our toilets and water our plants — but our infrastructure is creaking under the load, writes John Gibbons

Soldiers from 1 Brigade Signals at the Cork County Council depot filling and delivering sandbags to protect against further flooding in Midleton Co. Cork on October 20, 2023. Picture: Larry Cummins

Weather whiplash is a term coined by scientists to describe the rapid see-sawing now being experienced as periods of extreme drought followed by torrential downpours, followed by droughts, heatwaves and so on.

As the climate system heats up, the global water cycle has become more intense, and this is playing out here too. In just the last 30 years, Ireland has become markedly warmer and wetter: average air temperatures have risen by almost 1C, and there has been an overall increase in rainfall of about 7%.