COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, February 14, 2022
QUESTION NO.15
QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor
To ask the Chief Executive to confirm that he is satisfied with the level and quality of the water supply to our County and will he make a statement?
REPLY:
There are currently no concerns regarding quantity or quality of water supply to our County.
SDCC operates under a service level agreement with Irish Water to operate and maintain the water supply network within the County, and also the foul sewer network. Regular operations meetings take place with Irish Water and all the Greater Dublin Region Local Authorities to manage the water supply within the region. These meetings typically take place fortnightly, but can take place more often as required if water supply concerns arise such as drought conditions, treatment plant issues, significant bursts, our planned works on the network.
Irish Water have been working on a National Water Resources Plan and have recently published on their website, www.water.ie, a Draft Regional Water Resources Plan - Eastern and Midlands. This plan is open for a thirteen week consultation until 14th March 2022. Irish Water inform that they have organized a number of virtual briefings for members where they will take members through the plan.
The main points of the plan for the region indicated at this stage are:
- Reducing the number of Water Resource Zones in the Eastern and Midlands Region from 134 to 93.
- Development of larger interconnected Water Resource Zones for the urban areas in the region.
- Upgrades to 136 existing water treatment plants, in terms of size and barrier performance.
- Development of four new water treatment plants.
- Decommissioning 66 water treatment plants.
- Interconnecting 50 supplies via 860 kilometres of trunk mains.
- Reducing leakage from the 2019 baseline of 38% of regional demand to 22% of regional demand. This represents a 45% reduction in leakage from 2019 to 2034. This is achieved through, pressure management, active leakage control, find and fix and asset replacement.
Irish Water have established a Local Representative Support Desk for elected members. This support desk can be contacted at localrepsupport@water.ie or at 0818 178 178. Irish Water also hold Councillor Clinics, which typically take place quarterly.