COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 08, 2010

QUESTION NO.14

QUESTION: Councillor E. Tuffy

To compliment the Manager and his colleagues on the manner in which they have dealt with water shortages arising from the recent cold weather, particularly in their use of the website and other forms of communication, and to ask if he will make a statement on the peformance of the Council's water supply network, including a statement on the adequacy of the capital funding avalable to the Council in 2010 to continue projects to improve the County's water supply and distribution network?

REPLY:

The Manager and his staff appreciate the compliments from the Councillor on our management of the recent drinking water demand crisis. 

The report presented to the January meeting of the Environment SPC describes the course of the problem over the period. The excessive demand problem arose principally due to burst water mains, leaking services and households running taps in the belief that this would stop their services freezing. 

With unaccounted for water rates in the county at 20% because of the high quality of the Council's water network, bursts arising in the county were low with South Dublin County Council’s water maintenance crews dealing with an average of two burst water mains per day. The integrity and performance of the county's network allowed effective management of the demand in the county which can be clearly seen from the demand graph showing the levels of water usage over the period.

The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government is currently providing funding for the Boherboy Water Scheme.

Future Planned works have been submitted to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as part of the Council's Needs Assessment 2010 - 2012. Funding confirmation for these projects is being considered at present.