LATEST: Kildare people urged to save water as reservoir shuts for 12 hours
Water tankers are available at several locations
Residents across parts of north Kildare are being urged to conserve water after exceptionally high demand during the current spell of warm weather placed pressure on local water supplies.
Uisce Éireann has announced that operations at Allen Reservoir will be temporarily halted from approximately 6pm on Saturday to allow water levels to recover after treated water was used faster than it could be produced and stored.
The temporary shutdown will affect customers in Coill Dubh, Prosperous, Derrinturn, Kilmeage, Robertstown, Allenwood and surrounding areas.
Water supplies are expected to begin returning from around 6am on Sunday, July 12, although it may take up to 12 hours for normal service to be fully restored across all affected areas. Bottled water will be made available for vulnerable customers.
Alternative water supplies will be available from 6pm on Saturday until 9pm on Sunday at:
- Prosperous National School,
- Aylmere Court in Kilmeage,
- the R403 in Allenwood beside the 120/120X bus stop,
- the former Grand Canal Hotel in Robertstown,
- St Conleth's National School in Derrinturn and
- The Village Arch Café in Coill Dubh.
Uisce Éireann's Eoghan Forristal said every effort would be made to restore supplies as quickly as possible.
"We understand the inconvenience that this outage may cause, and we thank customers for their support while we allow reservoir levels to replenish. We expect that normal supply will be returning to customers from approximately 6am onwards tomorrow morning.
"We are also asking customers to reduce their usage across Co Kildare to give treated water reservoirs time to replenish. Even small changes, when taken across communities, can have a significant impact in maintaining supply for everyone."
Customers are being encouraged to take simple water-saving measures, including avoiding the use of hoses and sprinklers, taking shorter showers, fixing leaking taps, only running full loads in washing machines and dishwashers, and collecting rainwater for use in gardens.