Inch Island watermains work to begin next year

Residents at Magherabeg had suffered numerous water outages due to bursts in recent years.

During the summer, there were 12 periods of water disruption from July 29 until August 19, with two occurring on the same day, all within a one kilometre area.

The outages led to much disruption and frustrated residents, who had been calling for a number of years for the watermain to be replaced,set up a petition calling upon Irish Water to do so.

Last week, Inishowen County Councillor and Donegal Cathaoirleach Colr Jack Murray confirmed that Irish Water had revealed the watermains are to be replaced. He also credited Carmel Lynch and Chiara Boyle for launching the petition and campaign.

In a statement to the Journal, a spokesperson said works will begin next year,

“Securing the water supply in Donegal remains a vital focus for Irish Water. Working with Donegal County Council, we are continuing with efforts to further drive down leakage to reduce outages, conserve water and meet the demands of the county into the future.

“As part of Irish Water’s National Leakage Reduction Programme, €500 million will be invested by the end of 2021 to reduce the level of leakage across the country by fixing and replacing old and damaged water mains.

They continued: “Rehabilitation works on a 1.2km section of watermain at Inch Road, Burnfoot, Co Donegal, an area prone to leakages, has been prioritised by Irish Water for replacement. Detailed design/site investigation work will commence in 2022 with installation of the new watermain thereafter. Irish Water is committed to continuously upgrading and developing critical infrastructure to support the growth needed in housing and across our economy, while protecting the environment and safeguarding water supplies.”