Our water services have been at breaking point for the last week, as local authority engineers battle to maintain water supplies in the middle of the most severe freezing weather that most of us can remember.
So why has this happened? Why have so many people across the country been left without water, or with very low water pressure?
The simple answer is that we have had a lengthy period of extremely cold weather, of the kind which has not been experienced in Ireland for many years. This has frozen the water in the public mains and in private household plumbing.
As water freezes, it expands, and this puts pressure on pipes and joints, which can open up cracks and holes in the system. As temperatures rise again and the ice melts, leaks emerge, with the worst often only becoming evident after the ice and snow has gone.
Is it all down to Mother Nature? Well, Father Time may have caught up with us as well. We have old Victorian cast iron pipes in some of our town centres, and many older houses still have old, paper-thin lead pipes connecting domestic plumbing to the public supply.
Older pipes, and those poorly installed in modern times, are more susceptible, but they would have been susceptible in a normal cold winter as well – and local authorities would have expected an increase in bursts in a normal winter and would have planned accordingly. So this latest crisis does seem to have been caused by the weather.
At the moment, many of those responsible for our water services are battling to maintain water supplies and fix leaks, and are also coping with the general public who are leaving taps running. We appreciate that they are doing this out of genuine concern for the potential damage to their own property.
However, their actions can leave vulnerable neighbours without water. In the nightmare scenario, there would not be enough water in the mains for fire-fighting. A tap running overnight conservatively adds at least 25 per cent to the typical daily consumption of a household.
In this time of national water stress, it is very important that everybody conserve water where possible, take steps to identify and fix leaks in their own properties and report any leaks in the public network to the local authorities.
Just because you find that you have a supply of water next week does not mean that you don’t have a leak. Many leaks are dribbling water into the ground under the walls of houses for months and years, and don’t get fixed until the wall above starts to subside and crack. Without doubt, many of these ‘‘silent killer’’ leaks will have opened in the last week.
We are fortunate that we are not starting from square one. Since the mid-1990s, and particularly since the National Water Study in 2000, local authorities and the Department of the Environment have spent many millions of euro on water conservation and water mains rehabilitation. Perish the thought, but the situation could have been worse if that investment had not been made.
A new water services investment programme is being prepared by the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government based on the assessment of needs prepared by each local authority late last year, prioritising water conservation and leakage control. This is to be applauded, and it is hoped that the government will continue to fund water services, as they have for several years.
Whatever way local authorities have coped with this weather, it is certain that there will be a review to see how the system can respond better the next time.
So this may be a good opportunity to review the National Water Study of 2000, to reprioritise water management in Ireland in the context of these events and climate change in general.
The proposed introduction of domestic water charges in 2011 gives an opportunity to install water meters on each property. These would help to identify leaks and wastage in private property more quickly and save the cost of building more water treatment and storage facilities.
This may also be an opportunity to extend the Home Energy Saving Scheme to include water efficiency measures, such as rainwater harvesting, and plumbing improvements to make private houses more frost-resilient.
Finally, there may be a bright future for Ireland in the area of water as a resource.
While most of the world is expecting water shortages due to climate change in future decades, Ireland is expected to have a good supply of raw water which will become vital to attract inward investment. It is up to us to manage that raw water, treat it well and respect its use.
Kevin Murray is a Chartered Civil & Structural Engineer with more than 20 years experience as a consultant in Ireland and the UK.
