Update RE City Water Supply – 04/04/13

Reduction in pressure and/or loss of supply throughout the entire city from 9pm (Thursday 4th April) to between 7am and 9am (Friday 5th April)

There will be a reduction in pressure and/or loss of supply throughout the entire city tonight (Thursday 4th April) from 9pm to between 7am and 9am tomorrow morning (Friday 5th April).

However, there has been a significant improvement in water supply situation since the imposition of night time pressure reductions began on Thursday 28th March 2013. 

As a result of a review held today (Thursday 4th April),  the following phased removal of pressure restrictions will apply.

  1. With effect from Friday 5th April we expect to return to a regular service, albeit with reduced pressures, over the weekend.
  2. The reduced pressure regime will cease when full production is restored at the Roundwood Water Treatment plant. 

Dublin City Council wishes to apologise to our customers for the water restrictions we have had to put in place over the past week.

Due to the cooperation of all water users, we managed to save a significant amount of water and our regional strategic storage, which was at an extreme and unsustainable low level last Thursday, is almost back to its target level.

We will then continue to review and monitor the storage levels on an ongoing basis, but cannot rule out a return to more stringent restrictions if problems persist or the situation deteriorates.

Water demand is currently running higher than average due to the cold weather, which has caused an increase in leakage particularly on our old Victorian distribution system. Our crews are working flat out repairing any breaks as they arise. To help us in this regard we would ask people to report any location where they see water rising or running.

The single major issue still affecting us is the severe disruption to water production at our Roundwood Treatment Plant. This normally produces 66 million litres a day ( out of a maximum of  560 million litres for the entire Dublin Region) but is now down to  an average of 40 million litres a day, a shortfall of 26 million litres. There is no problem with storage levels of untreated/raw water and there is no problem with water quality of treated water. The region does not currently have a normal strategic reserve of 10-15% to meet such problems and has at best a limited 1% reserve, which will improve in future with new investment and conservation measures in the planning and construction stage.

In an effort to maintain storage we are asking consumers to assist us in maintaining adequate water supplies by restricting their use of water as much as possible. If all of our customers could reduce their consumption by 5%, and maintain this reduction, restrictions could cease almost immediately.

We expect to implement a gradual phased reduction in restrictions until Roundwood is back in production.

Tonight we will be reducing pressures throughout the system in order to conserve supplies. While we will try, as far as possible, to maintain pressures during peak demand periods, pressures will be reduced at other times. This will result in lower pressures and in some cases possible loss of supply. People may notice reductions in pressure or loss of supply from 9pm to between 7am and 9am throughout the entire city.

Over the weekend, customers should have water supply at their cold taps. They may not always have sufficient pressure at night to fill their storage tanks, but as these will fill during the day, most customers will be unaffected by the pressure reduction.  Customers should be aware that unlike some other utilities like ESB, water distribution systems cannot be operated and managed to the point where the exact locations and precise times at which the effects of pressure alterations (both increase and decreases) will be experienced, however we do make every effort to ensure that the times and areas affected are limited.

Dublin City Council regrets any inconvenience caused by these restrictions and will do everything possible to minimise their scale and duration.