Water shortages & restrictions
Find out about water restrictions and how Uisce Éireann works to conserve, protect and manage your supply.
A short spell of dry weather does not cause water shortages or drought. We need regular rainfall throughout the year, especially during winter, to build up our water supplies.
Water shortages are also caused by leaks, old pipes, increased demand, growing population and poor infrastructure.
Free leaks repairs
During water shortages, we encourage property owners to check and fix leaks on their properties. If you think you may have a leak, you may qualify for a free leak repair.
Supply and Service Updates
We are continuing to assess and monitor water supplies nationwide on a daily basis. Keep up to date on the latest water supply and service alerts in your area.
Greater Dublin Area water use
The graph below represents the amount of water used daily in the Greater Dublin Area. This includes the population of County Dublin, and parts of Counties Wicklow, Kildare and Meath.
This area is supplied by seven water treatment plants: Ballymore Eustace, Leixlip, Vartry, Ballyboden, Bog of the Ring, Srowland, Monasterevin, and Rathangan. The current safe and sustainable limit that we can treat in these water treatment plants is 610 million litres per day.
Greater Dublin Area water restrictions
There are times when it is necessary to introduce restrictions within the Greater Dublin Area. This chart outlines what customers can expect from different levels of water restriction.
Active management level | Day time impact | Night time impact | General customers experience | Multi-storey customers experience |
---|---|---|---|---|
0 |
None.
|
None.
|
No restrictions.
|
No restrictions.
|
1 |
None.
|
Midnight — 05:00
Lower pressure, average flow to 2-storey. |
Sufficient to fill attic tanks quickly in day-time and
slowly at night-time.
|
Sufficient to supply building pumps at high-rate in day-time and
low-rate at night-time.
|
2 |
None
|
22:00 — 05:00
Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor. |
No Loss of Supply.
Some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks will experience lower night-time pressure. |
Some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may experience
low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
|
3 |
None
|
22:00 — 05:00
Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor. |
No Loss of Supply.
Most customers will experience low night-time pressures. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods. |
Customers may experience
low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
|
3 |
None
|
21:00 — 07:00
Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor. |
No Loss of Supply.
Most customers will experience low night-time pressures. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods. |
Customers may experience
low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
|
4 |
10:00 — 16:00
Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor. |
21:00 — 07:00
Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor. |
Most customers will experience
low pressures during day and night pressure reductions.
Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods. |
Customers may experience
low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
|
5 |
10:00 — 16:00
Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor. |
21:00 — 07:00
Restricted & shuts on rotational basis. |
Most customers will experience
low pressures during day-time, but no loss of supplies.
Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods. Most customers will experience full loss of supply during night-time shuts in their area. |
Customers may experience
low night-time and day-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
|
Technical description | Level 0 | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Restrictions.
Distribution network pressures maintained to accommodate peak flows over 24-hour period. |
No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to 2-storey house. | No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only. | No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only. | No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only. | Day-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only. | Day-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only. Night-time distribution network pressure restrictions and shuts on a rotational basis. |