Water works in Kilkenny saving 900,000 litres a day

Upgrade works during the pandemic have saved enough water to supply a further 2,500 houses per day.

More then 900,000 litres of water a day are now being saved in Kilkenny through the work of Irish Water’s Leakage Reduction Programme, performed in conjunction with the local authroity’s water pressure management project.

Works over the last year by the agencies resulted in disruptions in the water supply to 18,000 homes across the county. But the man leading the project insists the end results have been well worth it.

Irish Water programme lead  Joe Carroll said: “Many people will believe that reducing leakage is only about replacing old pipes or fixing bursts. However, managing pressure on the water network is another key aspect to reducing leakage and providing a more stable and reliable water supply to our customers.

“Kilkenny city is fed from Troyswood Water Treatment Plant. The main issue was that an outdated pressure regulation valve was causing major pressure issues across the water supply network.

“The high pressures were causing bursts and unplanned water supply outages for the local community, high levels of leakage and repair costs. The works completed over three weeks at Troyswood involved replacing the old valve with a modern pressure regulation valve,” Mr Carroll added.

The completion of works on the water systems will now allow the existing infrastructure to serve possible new developments in the city.

Mr Carroll added: “There were potentially a wide range of customers impacted by the interruption to water supply. 18,000 properties in total including homes and businesses.

“We understood this was hugely inconvenient with Covid-19 requirements in place, but these works were vital to the security of the water supply for Kilkenny.”