A Boil Water Notice for the residents of Kilconnell and the surrounding areas is now going into its second year.
Irish Water issued a boil water notice to people on the Kilconnell Public Water Supply, and the Ballyboggan Group Water Scheme supplied by it, on June 18, 2018 due to elevated turbidity in the water.
Turbidity is a measurement of how cloudy or hazy water is, caused by a large amount of particles in the water individually invisible to the naked eye.
New plans to provide a reliable drinking water supply to the area have been agreed on after efforts to locate a replacement ground water source failed.
The Kilconnell Public Water Supply will now be connected to the Cappataggle Group Water Scheme.
Work is expected to begin on laying down an interconnecting pipeline in the next two to three weeks.
Irish Water has said that it is committed to delivering a “safe, secure, robust supply of drinking water for the homes and businesses in Kilconnell.”
Numerous efforts were made to find an alternative ground water supply over the past year, but those were unsuccessful for several reason.
“A trial borehole that was drilled at the Kilconnell reservoir site yielded no water,” a spokesperson for Irish Water said.
“Subsequently another trial borehole was drilled near the existing water treatment plant and found to yield considerable quantities of water but with variable quality.”
“It was decided to attempt to screen out the poorer quality water. However despite extensive work and further test pumping, this was found to be unsuccessful.”
“Following discussions with the Cappataggle Group Water Scheme the decision was taken to connect the public supply to the group water supply to ensure customers receive a clean and reliable supply of water.”
Until that is complete the Boil Water Notice will remain in place, and any water that is being used for drinking, in the preparation of food that will not be cooked before eating (i.e salads), brushing teeth, or preparing baby formula should be boiled first.
It’s not necessary to boil water that’s for bathing or watering plants, though when bathing an infant extra care should be taken to ensure the child doesn’t swallow any water.
Irish water advises that standard domestic water filters will not be able to purify the affected water.
