Emergency repairs to Athlone Water Treatment Plant completed and supplies are returning to customers

Update 6.30pm 01 October

Emergency repairs to Athlone Water Treatment Plant completed and supplies are returning to customers

Irish Water, working in partnership with Westmeath County Council, have completed repairs at Athlone Water Treatment Plant and supplies are beginning to return to normal to impacted customers. The plant is operating as normal, however, reservoir storage levels have depleted as a result of the outage, impacting the water supply to parts of Athlone.

Affected areas

Customers in the following areas may continue to experience low pressure and/or outages as the network refills: Mount Temple, Annagh, Ballykeeran, Assumption Road, Tormey Villas, Old Coosan Road, Coolevin, The Two Mile, Whitebeam Avenue, Coosan Point Road, Hillquarter, Meehanquarter, Beechpark, Bloomfield Drive, Churchhills, Churchfields and surrounding areas. Irish Water has contacted vulnerable customers who are registered on Irish Water’s vulnerable customer register.

Irish Water and Westmeath County Council are providing water tankers at the following locations: Coosan Cemetery, Coosan Church, The Bounty, Clonbrusk Primary Care, the viewing point in Ballykeeran and The Pyke Road in Mount Temple. Each tanker will be manned until approximately 9.30pm tonight. Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tankers and to boil water before use as a precautionary measure. Irish Water would also like to remind the public to adhere to all public health advice in relation to social distancing when collecting water from the tankers.

Conserve water

Irish Water and Westmeath County Council are appealing to customers in Athlone to conserve water where possible to allow reservoir levels to recover. As handwashing remains a priority, simple water conservation efforts can have a big impact on reducing demand on this supply. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth and shaving can save up to 6 litres of water per minute. Taking a shower instead of a bath or using a watering can rather than a hose when gardening can also make a big difference in water use. For more tips on how to conserve water in your home, visit our Water Conservation section. 

There may also be some temporary discolouration of water and occasionally issues such as internal airlocks may arise following an outage. For helpful tips on what to do following an outage, including clearing airlocks, visit www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-issues/following-an-outage/.

Irish Water and Westmeath County Council apologise for any inconvenience caused by these emergency repairs and thank customers for their patience while we work to restore supplies.

Updates

For queries, customers should contact Irish Water directly on our customer care helpline, open 24/7, on 1850 278 278. Updates will be available our Water Supply Updates section and via Twitter @IWCare.

Irish Water continues to work at this time with our Local Authority partners, contractors and others to safeguard the health and well-being of both staff and the public and to ensure the continuity of critical drinking water and wastewater services. Irish Water would like to remind people to follow the HSE COVID-19 advice and ensure frequent handwashing.