Poor quality asbestos pipes laid under roads built on bogs have been blamed for countless water outages in west Donegal.
However, Irish Water has told local Councillor, Michael McClafferty, there are no plans to replace that section of the network in the Gweedore and Rosses areas.
There have been a number of bursts in the area, the most recent one today, along the 6.25 KM section.
In response to a query from Cllr McClafferty, Irish Water said the main issue is that there is considerable movement on the road as it is built on bog, resulting in issues with the old asbestos pipes.
Speaking today, he said residents of the area have been ‘enduring a terrible service’ from Irish Water due to the lack of investment and essential upgrades.
“You will see from the response that there are no plans for upgrades – basically the people of the area are just expected to endure it,” Cllr McClafferty said.
He added that he requested a meeting with the utility to discuss the issue, however, he was informed that Irish Water will only be holding a ‘workshop’ with all 37 Donegal councillors.
“How could we possibly cover and discuss the entire county of Donegal in this short time,” he asked.
“I objected to this (meeting) as it’s completely unfair – when you have 40+ people in a room who all have areas of concern to discuss and voice, being realistic how much is going to get covered. We deserve to have a workshop with Irish Water to discuss the Glenties Municipal District only. We simply can’t continue like this – there are sick people living in our area who are dependent on water, businesses who have had to close due to water being off, brides who woke up the morning of their wedding with no water and without upgrading the pipes this is going to continue to occur. We want a meeting to address the area we are elected to represent. Falcarragh, Gortahork, Gweedore and the Rosses have had uncountable disruptions over the past six weeks.”
