A new pump is set to be installed at the Rockhill pumping station to increase water pressure in Bomany, Newmills, Tullygay, and surrounding areas before Christmas.
These areas outside Letterkenny experienced another major outage following Storm Bert, with some homes left without water for five days.
Councillor Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly has today welcomed news from Uisce Eireann that a new pump is to be installed to increase water pressure in these areas.
“Although the goal and permanent solution here is to have the infrastructure upgraded and a bigger reservoir in place, Uisce Eireann are confident that this pump will see major improvements in water pressure in these areas in the medium term,” Cllr Kelly said.
“Uisce Eireann is also exploring taking another feed line from the Inishowen supply coming from the Illies water treatment plant to feed into the Newmills areas, which is very positive were this to happen.”
Cllr Kelly’s cautious welcome comes as the new pump will reduce low water pressure and water outages but won’t reduce bursts on the networks.
“A large investment is needed here, that I have no doubt of, and I have once again requested that central government be lobbied to secure adequate funding,” he said.
“There is a 37% leakage in the infrastructure in Donegal, and that for me speaks volumes that we need a massive investment throughout Donegal from central government, and I will continue to keep the pressure on Uisce Eireann to seek this much needed funding for Donegal.
“The families in these areas again went 5 days without water, which only came back on today, Tuesday the 26th, due to a major bust in the Oldtown area. I look forward to this pump now being installed with the hope that it will give the residents in these areas relief and an adequate water supply until the infrastructure is upgraded once and for all.”
Water supply returned to customers in Bomany, Newmills, Roughan, Tullygay, Conwal today after a significant burst on the network.
“Uisce Éireann acknowledges the inconvenience caused by interruptions to the water supply and we very much appreciate our customers’ co-operation while our crews worked to carry out the repairs,” a spokesperson said.
Uisce Éireann’s Damien O’Sullivan explained: “Water supply in Bomany, Newmills, Roughan, Tullygay, Conwal and surrounding areas areas is closely monitored as balancing water supply and demand at these areas is currently very challenging. When leaks occur anywhere on the water supply network, quite often, the water supply pressure drops and unfortunately the most elevated properties may lose pressure or supply. This was experienced in the elevated properties at the areas listed this weekend. To support our customers in these areas while supply was disrupted, alternative water supplies were located at Newmills and Tullygay.”
Damien continued: “Expert leak detection operatives were deployed with specialist sounding equipment to locate the leak. The leak took some time to locate given the difficult conditions posed by Storm Bert and was eventually isolated and repaired in the Oldtown area last night by dedicated Uisce Éireann operatives.”
Uisce Éireann is continuing to appeal to customers in these areas to conserve water to give the reservoirs time to replenish.
