Water tankers mobilise as taps are turned off in Kilkenny city and Freshford for day
Water tankers are mobilising as Kilkenny city and Freshford prepare for almost a full day without supplies tomorrow.
The 22-hour outage affecting the city and its environs is due to “essential upgrade” works on the water supply network at Talbotsinch on the Freshford Road.
A spokesperson for Irish Water said: “There will be a temporary loss of water supply to homes and businesses for a period of up to 22 hours from 00:00hrs to 22:00hrs on Saturday 28th November 2020.
“As part of these works, Freshford and surrounding areas may also experience a temporary loss of water supply to homes and businesses for a similar period of time. Following these essential upgrade works, some customers may experience reduced pressure for a few hours, as water refills the network.”
The upgrade works are required to replace an outdated valve on the watermain from Troyswood Reservoir supplying Kilkenny city. The valve reduces pressures in the water network in proportion to the flow through it, resulting in high pressures at night and reduced pressures at peak demand periods.
Irish Water’s Joe Carroll said: “The size and scale of the leakage challenge nationally is well documented. The installation of these valves is likely to have a significant long-term impact on the levels of leakage being recorded in the drinking water network of Kilkenny.
“High flows into the network when demand is low can cause excessive leakage and bursts, especially at night. Similarly, when demand is high the current valves can result in low pressure being experienced across the city. With more controlled flows in the network, we will be able to implement further leakage reduction works and are confident we will see significant savings across the network. In addition to the leakage savings expected, the improvement to drinking water is critical to the future development in Kilkenny.”
Irish Water and Kilkenny County Council apologised to householders “for any inconvenience that these essential upgrade works may cause”. They said they will “make every effort” to complete the works as quickly as possible.
Several water tankers will be available on the day of the works. These will be located at St Canice’s Church, The Watershed, Kilkenny Scouts Den & O’Loughlins Gaels GAA club from 8am to 7pm tomorrow.
For updates, visit https://www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/
