COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 11, 2011

MOTION NO.10

MOTION: Councillor E. Tuffy

That the Manager would make a Report on the water supply infrastructure, including information on projects/works completed since January 2010, projects /works currently in progress and information on the percentage of potable water produced for the County and lost through leakage, distinguishing if possible between leakage in the public infrastructure and leakage inside private and commercial premises.

REPORT:

As you will probably be aware the biggest Water Supply Infrastructural Project currently in progress in South Dublin is the Boherboy Water Supply Scheme. This Scheme entails building two reservoirs at Saggart and Kiltalown and laying over 38.5 kilometers of pipelines varying in size from 200 mm to 1,600 mm plus all associated fittings, instrumentation, connections and chambers. This project was progressing successfully until November 2010 when the Contractor went into examinership/ liquidation with the project over 90% complete.

Since that date our Consulting Engineers and Resident Engineering Staff have been putting together a list of all outstanding works and snags which have been compiled into a Completion Contract. The Completion Contract documents were issued to six competent Contractors with the agreement of the Bondman recently and it is hoped to appoint a Contractor from these six shortly to complete the Boherboy Water Supply Scheme with a finishing date of mid 2012.  

Another Scheme which started in South Dublin early this year was the Dublin Region Water Mains Rehabilitation Project. This Project is 90% funded by the Department of Environment Community and Local Government Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012 under the Capital Works Heading and 10% by South Dublin County Council. Contract 10 of this Project will see almost 13 kilometers of old cast iron mains replaced with new pipes plus all the services to the houses in Walkinstown (7.5 kilometers), Lucan Village (2.75 kilometers) and the Robinhood/Ballymount area (2.7 kilometers). This work is almost complete and should see a reduction in burst watermains and leaks in these areas plus improved drinking water quality. Contract 11 of this Project will see a small amount of watermains replaced in Rathcoole Village and Baldonnell later in the year.   

In addition the Council has been  installating  PRVs (Pressure Reducing Valves) which reduces the pressure in DMAs (District Meter Areas) which usually consist of around 1,000 houses thus cutting down on bursts and leakage. There are now over 30 installed and commissioned and more will come on stream when the Boherboy Water Supply Scheme is complete. Two of these PRVs can be controlled remotely via PC or laptop and it is hoped to continue this process to the rest of the PRVs which enable a faster and more cost effective response in crisis incidents.  Other projects that are being looked at are the automation of sluice valves at critical locations on large trunk mains to facilitate water conservation at times of high demand and the powering of outstations at district meters and PRVs with solar panels thus increasing South Dublin County Council’s use of Green Energy.

South Dublin County consumes on average 71 Megalitres of water per day mostly coming from Dublin City Council’s Drinking Water Treatment Plant at Ballymore Eustace of which 20% is lost to leaks in the South Dublin County Council infrastructure and an estimated further 8% through domestic householder leaks. It should be noted that this Council's leakage is one of the lowest nationally.  The lowest this figure can economicaly reach is 16% therefore demonstrating that South Dublin's performance is very good.  Leaks in Commercial premises are  metered and therefore paid for by the occupiers but the Council works with businesses to assist them in identifying and reducing leakage.  Both the Rehab and PRV Projects mentioned above should reduce these leakage figures further to our target figure of 16%.