Anger and frustration as housing estate to be left without water over Christmas

The 28 houses on the Church View Estate in Batterstown have been left without a water supply since mid September after problems arose with an €80k well put in place by Meath County Council and Irish Water.

Since then they have been regularly provided with bottled water by the council and fears are mounting that the problem will not be resolved by Christmas which is now just sixteen days away.

Leonie Kearney who lives in the estate revealed, ‘The whole situation is ludicrous, I’ll give you one example of the bungling and red tape we have to deal with.

‘If you ring up Irish Water to ask what is going on they immediately say they cannot tell you anything unless you provide them with a reference number, the problem is none of us have ever been given a reference number.

‘I feel like saying okay give me the reference number then I will give you the reference number!

‘We are told absolutely nothing, we don’t even know if we are going to have our supply back for Christmas but as they delivered more bottles of water last week and those are supposed to last us for weeks it seems unlikely.

‘Apparently the problem is that somehow bromate got in the water supply and we cannot use the water for anything.’

According to its Wikipedia page bromate is a known Carcinogen a substance that produces cancer meaning the water it has been found in is not safe to drink.

Meanwhile with the festive season well and truly upon us there is not much goodwill to either Irish Water or the council to be found in Church View.

Leonie said, ‘There is one family on the estate has a two week old baby, how are they meant to wash it.

‘I would say this Christmas will be a total washout except we won’t have enough water to wash anything, I can’t even use the tap water to wash the potatoes and vegetables for our Christmas dinner.’

A spokesman for Irish Water said, ‘Irish Water and Meath County Council would like to remind customers supplied by Batterstown Public Water Scheme that the Do Not Consume Notice issued on Thursday 16 September remains in place until further notice.

‘The Do Not Consume Notice was placed as a precaution to protect approximately 96 customers as a result of a Bromate exceedance in the water supply.

‘Customers in this area are reminded that the water is not safe for consumption or the preparation of foods, but is safe for hygiene and use in washing machines and dishwashers. It is especially important that mains drinking water is not given to bottle fed infants. Irish Water would like to remind the public to continue to follow public health advice on handwashing and hygiene

‘We would like to reassure our customers that Irish Water’s drinking water compliance and operational experts are working in partnership with Meath County Council to lift the Do Not Consume Notice as quickly and as safely as possible, in consultation and agreement with the HSE. The EPA have been notified of the Do Not Consume Notice’.