All residents of Inishowen are said to have their water services restored today after severe damage was caused during last week’s floods.
Irish Water have confirmed that water services are restored to all areas in the peninsula.
Irish Water and Donegal County Council are continuing to assess the flooding damage to the water and wastewater infrastructure with a view to carrying out permanent repairs over the coming weeks.
Laurence Nash, Irish Water’s Operations Lead for Donegal, said: “We would like to acknowledge the huge efforts of Donegal County Council staff in dealing with this unprecedented incident. Crews worked long hours, including at night and over the weekend, to ensure that water supply could be restored to customers as quickly as possible. Much of this work was carried out in very difficult conditions as a result of the heavy rainfall during the past week.
“We would also like to thank the Donegal public for their patience while we worked to deal with these issues.”
Unprecedented rainfall on the night of August 22 caused significant damage to roads and bridges which had a direct impact on any supported water supply pipework as well as causing flooding at some wastewater treatment plants.
Since then, temporary repairs have been carried out in the affected areas to maintain water supply for customers and to restore treatment of wastewater. Damage to pipework connected to affected bridges and roads will be replaced in conjunction with the County Council Roads Service restoration project.
A number of wastewater plants were also impacted as a result of the flooding and the majority have been restored to normal operation. Irish Water have said they will continue to liaise with the EPA on the ongoing operational status of the plants.
Nash said: “Over the coming weeks, the Incident team will remain in place as Irish Water and Donegal County Council carry out permanent repairs to damaged infrastructure. While this may cause some temporary disruption to customers, we will make every effort to keep them informed as this work is progressed via local media and the Irish Water website.
“The Incident Team will be making a presentation to the Inishowen Municipal District and other Elected Representatives to highlight the extent of the damage suffered as part of the overall incident response.
“The Service and Supply section of the Irish Water website (www.water.ie) will continue to be updated regularly with details of any disruptions and we are advising customers to contact the 24/7 customer care line at 1850 278 278 to report any incidents in their area.”
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