1/11/2022- 3:50 p.m.
An independent body monitoring the state of water infrastructure has “noted with concern” the thousands of people on boil notices – despite Irish Water insisting the increase is down to better testing of local supplies.
The Water Advisory Board (WAB) said 7,029 people were on boil water notices at the end of June, which is an increase of 1,344 people compared to the end of last March.
It added that 11 of the 14 boil water notices serving 2,152 people were in place for more than 30 days at the end of last year’s second quarter.
Boil water notices have been the bane of communities across the country in recent times. A number of areas in East Cork, for example, have been regularly served with boil water notices over the last few years, including the recent Christmas period.
The Christmas notice affected nearly 10,000 people supplied by the Whitegate regional public supply in east Cork, and was in place on Christmas Day after consultation with the HSE.
The WAB said some 455,097 consumers were being served by 55 “at risk” supplies, an increase of 11,282 consumers from the second quarter of 2021.
“This corresponds with the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent statement that the progress made during 2020 continues to be reversed during 2021,” it said.
The WAB said it “would like to see boil water notices in place for as short a period as possible”, and that this requires significant investment by Irish Water.
In response, Irish Water insisted the protection of public health is a top priority, along with reducing leakage, and eliminating boil water notices.
Irish Water chief executive Niall Gleeson said: “Irish Water is making significant progress. Continued investment saw over half a million customers removed from at-risk water supplies in 2021 and major infrastructure projects delivered.
Over 99% of our drinking water was compliant with regulations.
Irish Water said there were currently eight boil water notices, impacting 918 customers, which have been in place for more than 30 days.
