Residents in Co Roscommon are sceptical about the prospect of being able to drink their water any time soon, even with a byelection in the offing. About 22,000 people there have been on boil-water notices for up to four years.
A number of residents and businesses in the county have also said they are not happy with the extent of proposed discounts on their water bills offered by Irish Water for supplies which are unsafe to drink.
Former Independent councillor John Murphy of Castlerea lost his seat on the council in the recent local elections. He says telling people, “Vote for me and I will bring clean water to your village,” was a difficult sell. “It sounded like I was standing in the Third World.”
The water issue is familiar across Co Roscommon. In Cootehall, locals are in the second year of boil-water notices. Rosemary Bruen drives a 25km roundtrip to collect water from a well near Keadue. With six children, she fills 15-20 five-litre bottles in a regular Saturday morning operation that can be significantly delayed because of queuing at the well. “You would raise this with election candidates at the door, yes, but what can they do?” she asks. “It is in the hands of Irish Water now.”
Ms Bruen and her husband Joe, and their near neighbour, Fianna Fáil Cllr Rachel Doherty, say Irish Water needs to do more to recognise and compensate people for the difficulties they have been living with for several years: brushing teeth, bathing small children in water that is often dirty and ensuring they do not inadvertently swallow a mouthful, washing vegetables. “Would you waste precious drinking water to wash the mud off a head of lettuce or a cabbage if you had driven to Keadue and back for it?” Ms Bruen asks.
Something better
“Irish Water needs to come up with something better,” she says, as her husband hands around coffees made with water transported from Keadue.
Around the corner, Jenny Griffin chats to her son Daniel, who runs Henry’s pub. Water for whiskeys and such has to be bought in. Ice machines connected to the tap cannot be used so ice is sourced from the local supermarkets, which import ice from the UK.
The Lakeside Café, at Lough Key forest park, warns visitors not to drink water from the taps. Eileen Murphy, from Boyle and visiting with children, says the “real problem is that people are not angry enough. Nobody should be paying for water that could poison you.” But some restaurants and bars in the area feel airing the problem is bad for tourism business. “We are not all in agreement on this,” says one who asks not to be named.
Martin Guihen, who runs the Open Table, at the Crescent in Boyle, says the restaurant has put in its own filtration system. The traders are “all working very hard to make sure the water is good and clean”, he says, noting that it is a job they should not have to do.
In Castlerea, John Murphy is also aware of the potential damage to the county caused by foreign investors saying they can’t settle in Roscommon. He says a plan to link up the Castlerea rural and urban water schemes under a temporary plant would provide clean drinking water by next year. “We will have clean water in March,” he says.
Missed deadlines
Eleven drinking-water plants in Roscommon are listed on the drinking-water remedial action list of the Environmental Protection Agency. Three of these have missed EPA deadlines requiring they be brought up to standard. The separate Boyle and Boyle/Ardcarne, were due to be ready by August 2014, while the Roscommon Central plan was due by August 2013.
Irish Water says its timetable for clean drinking water includes commissioning new or upgraded plants at Boyle/ Ardcarne in December 2014; at Killeglan in south Roscommon in February 2015; and at Lisbrock, Roscommon Central and Arigna plants in May 2015.
By the end of this year about 12,000 Irish Water customers nationally will have boil-water notices removed, the utility says, adding that service for “the majority” of the remaining 8,000 customers will be restored by summer 2015.
The EPA says its information is that two plants, the north and northeast regional water supply schemes, were not expected to be commissioned until 2016, and it had been given no date for the completion of the Ballyfarnan scheme.
