A local hairdressing salon in Falcarragh has been forced to take alternative measures during another water outage.
Roisin Gallagher and her team at Roisin’s Beauty Bar faced another day of bookings without a water supply this Friday morning.
But, with over twenty outages so far this year, Roisin says she has no other option but to keep the doors open.
Instead of taps, she keeps water stored and heats it in a kettle for hair rinses. Then she has to pour the water over her customers’ hair with a watering can.
“The water has been out nearly every week this summer. The watering can looks really unprofessional but we just can’t afford to close anymore,” Roisin told Donegal Daily.
“We were fully booked today and we are busy with weddings tomorrow. I’m afraid the water will be off again then, because it sometimes stays off two days in a row.
“The water came back on today after 2pm. But when it does come back the water is pure black for 20 minutes after.
“Before this we had to turn people away when the water was off and close the salon.
“Now we’ve been buying loads of water, filling kettles and warming it up. We get the temperature right before we can pour it at the sinks,” she said.
Homes and businesses in Falcarragh and surrounding areas have been struggling with regular water outages this year.
Irish Water has said the issue is caused by two sections of water pipes that are prone to frequent bursts which need replacing. The existing pipework is asbestos concrete, a common pipe material used in the 1980s which bursts frequently as the pipes reach the end of their life cycle.
The water supply was disrupted this Friday morning due to essential works by Irish Water.
Roisin says that the local businesses now have a text alert to notify when the water will be off, but they come too late for her salon, which opens at 9am. Her staff have arrived by this time. Two hairdressers and a beautician are employed at Roisin’s Beauty Bar.
Roisin’s Beauty Bar opened in March 2018
Roisin says her customers have been mostly understanding about the team’s unusual measures.
“We can’t even make tea or coffee for the customers. The locals don’t have their own water so they come to us, they are understanding. But a few times we have had holidaymakers who are not happy with how we have to do things. We just try and make them understand that it’s not our fault,” Roisin said.
Irish Water currently plans to commence the construction of water mains improvements in Falcarragh this Autumn.
After a busy summer, Roisin says every day is a struggle until a solution is found: “We are really struggling at the moment. It’s really hard to keep going, the summer has been so hard. We’ve been so busy and this is just another problem on top of it all.”
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