A major water leak in South Donegal was leading to 500,000 litres being lost every day, Irish Water has revealed.
The issue, which is now repaired, was causing significant problems for residents of the local area.
It was recently tracked to the underground network on the Buncrana to Slab road.
An extensive review of the network was carried out and, following the installation of a new public meter, crews were able to locate the leak and plan the repair.
The works involved the installation of a bulk meter, which gathers information about water usage and flow, on the Buncrana trunk main. The meter enabled crews to locate the underground leak on the public supply, which serves a large geographical area from Buncrana to Muff and St. Johnson to Manorcunningham. The repair works took place on 20th July 2021.
Speaking about the project Margaret Doherty, Executive Engineer for Water Conservation and Find and Fix Project with Donegal County Council commented, “As a result of the collaboration between Donegal County Council and Irish Water, customers are enjoying a more secure and reliable water supply.
“We were aware there was an underground leak on the public network, but we didn’t know its exact location so we had to improve the infrastructure on the public network to direct us to the precise location of the leak.
“It took a lot of investigation and planning to repair the leak. We were losing valuable clean drinking water underground and water is precious, so to have fixed the leak and improved the network is a huge win.
“Securing the water supply in Donegal in the long term remains a vital focus and Donegal County Council and Irish Water are continuing with efforts to further drive down leakage in the area, which will meet the demands for the county into the future.”
