The hosepipe ban “could potentially be extended”, according to the head of water operations at Uisce Éireann.
Margaret Attridge said although parts of the country such as the northwest had seen “some levels of rainfall in the last few weeks which has made that area more stable ... potentially, we could consider extending the water conservation order regionally”.
Some supplies across the country were “already under pressure” due to the warm weather, she told RTÉ’s Radio One’s Drivetime programme on Tuesday.
She said sources would come under further under pressure, with Met Éireann having forecasted another period of warm weather.
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A status yellow high temperature warning is in effect for Leinster and Co Tipperary until Friday morning.
“We do see increases in water usage and demand during warm weather and that is why we put in place the water conservation order, the hosepipe ban,” Attridge said.
The current hosepipe ban is in effect until August 26th.
She said this was to “protect the supplies, to make sure we have enough water to supply our community and businesses throughout the days ahead”.
Attridge thanked the public for “their efforts in the last few weeks” to reduce their water usage, saying Uisce Éireann had seen a reduction in demand across the country that has helped keep “water flowing in most schemes”.
However, some schemes remained “under pressure”.
“We continue to tanker water to treat water storage reservoirs to sustain supplies throughout the day,” she said.
She added that at some schemes night-time restrictions had been put in place to allow reservoirs to fill during the night so there was enough supply for daytime use.
She said the national water utility was “keeping everything under review” regarding the hosepipe ban and were “continuing to monitor all supplies across the country”.
“Lifting it will be dependent on a number of factors, [such as] the weather forecast, the soil moisture deficit.
“The soil in the country is very dry at the moment as the farming community well know so ... the rain forecasted in some areas of the country in the next few days isn’t going to do much to change the soil moisture deficit so it wont do much to recharge our lake and river sources.”
She said Uisce Éireann was continuing to monitor lake and river sources as well as ground water sources and was reviewing demand.
She asked people to continue their efforts to conserve water in their homes and businesses.
Uisce Éireann said in a statement the hosepipe ban “is reviewed on an ongoing basis taking into account weather conditions, soil moisture deficits and the status of water supplies”.
