COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 08, 2010

QUESTION NO.2

QUESTION: Councillor S. Crowe

To ask the Manager will he give report confirming outlining that night time monitoring of water usage is being carried out in the County, if the monitoring has identified any specific area or estate where residents were clearly involved in water wastage during the recent crisis and the new measures he proposes to introduce to elminate this wastage?

REPLY:

In the period from 1998 to date, South Dublin County Council has reduced unaccounted for water levels from 28.6% to 19.24%. The Council's Water Management Section is working towards target levels, as set by the DoEHLG, of 20% by 2007 and 16% by 2016.

A District Metering System is used to quantify and monitor distribution losses. This system divides the water network into approx. 100 district metered areas (DMAs) and 18 Water Supply Areas (WSAs). Water Flow levels in each DMA/WSA is recorded every 15-minutes using electromagnetic flow meters, which relay data via telemetry to computers in Deansrath Depot/County Hall. Night flows are monitored weekly to assess which DMAs have high unaccounted-for-water. These areas are included in our weekly programme of leak detection work.


A Pressure Management System reduces excessive mains pressure and thereby reduce water wastage/losses. Pressure control is currently being implemented in 27 DMAs in the SDCC area. These DMAs have been fitted with pressure control valves that reduce excessive water pressure while maintaining a minimum service pressure of 15m head of water.

During the recent water shortage the normal night time monitoring of water usage in specific areas of the county had to be re-arranged to allow for water flows to be redirected in certain areas of the county. This involved opening and closing valves and by- passing pressure reducing valves (PRVs) to get water back to these houses quicker.

The overall demand figures for the region and South Dublin County Council demand figures which followed a similar pattern clearly showed that as well as burst water mains and leaking services people were running taps in the belief that their services would not freeze.

Ways of reducing water consumption in homes, schools and businesses have been on the Council's website under www.taptips.ie for a long time and the Council has been targeting schools to get our water conservation message across for some time with all students  receiving water conservation packs to bring home.