Irish Water put on alert after supplying unfit drinking water

Irish Water has been ordered by the government to carry out an operational audit of all its drinking water treatment plants. The order followed two separate and serious incidents at facilities in the greater Dublin area involving the supply of unfit water.

The plants were at Ballymore Eustace which serves parts of Co Dublin, and a plant in Wexford which serves Gorey town. Both are now operating safely.

A failure at a treatment plant serving Gorey resulted in unsafe water being supplied which led to fifty-two confirmed illnesses and residents having to go to hospital. A power outage and a chlorine pump failure resulted in water entering the public supply without the appropriate level of disinfection for five days.

The Ballymore Eustace plant, which serves 877,000 customers in the greater Dublin area, produced unsafe drinking water for up to ten hours following the loss of a cryptosporidium treatment barrier, compounded by inadequate disinfection.

In each case local authority staff working for the publicly-owned utility failed to act or to alert the regulatory authorities as quickly as necessary.

The Environmental Protection Agency contacted local government minister, Darragh O’ Brien, who is responsible for water policy, citing “abject failure in management oversight, operational control and responsiveness at the plants, which had allowed unsafe water to enter into the public drinking water supply and endanger public health”.

O’Brien has required Irish Water to inspect all its eater treatment plants, beginning with its twenty largest.

In a statement the minister said the company would work with each local authority conducting re-fresher training on incident reporting for all plants. Where appropriate, Irish Water will place a technician on site, to ensure the continued safety of water treatment plants. “

Currently Ireland’s 31 local authorities help deliver water services in their area on an agency basis for Irish Water. Traditionally water services were a local government function. Despite owning the assets and paying for service delivery through so-called service level agreements Irish Water does not have direct control over the majority of service staff or assets.

This cumbersome arrangement is about to end. Irish Water, working with local authorities and current water services workers, is implementing a phased plan for the integration of water services into its organisational structure in 2022 when the 3,200 local authority staff involved in water services will be integrated into the utility.