Councillors at a Thurles Municipal District Council Meeting on Monday last were calling for ‘a plan’, latter to be drawn up 40 years too late, in an effort to tackle unprecedented flooding in Thurles on Sunday night.
Fianna Fáil Councillors Mr Seamus Hanafin and Mr Sean Ryan; the former confirming that the issue was a 40 year old inheritance problem and blaming Tipperary County Council; while the latter councillor acknowledged that this was the 3rd such incident over the last 18 month period.
As non-red faced Councillors verbally “passed the political buck” yesterday, local dissatisfied residents were seriously asking the question; “What were both above named, paid and elected public representatives doing for the past number of years, while both were members of this same Tipperary County Council, led by Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath?”
The answer of course they already know, same being; “Mostly talking party politics and further destroying Thurles town’s valuable, rich, history, to the detriment of our local tourism industry”.
Meanwhile, according to a recent ‘Press Release’, Irish Water yesterday outlined its investment in water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the Premier County, since 2014.
Surprise, surprise, Thurles is not targeted for future upgrading except under the “Leakage Reduction Programme”, but we learn that between 2014-2019, the utility invested €69m into various projects in Tipperary, with an estimated €65m, once again being ‘pumped’ (pardon the pun) into other un-named projects, up until 2024.
[None of which I might add, includes even a sandbag or a sewage blocker, being offered to Thurles town businesses or residents, and OMG, do you think, with local elections occurring in 2024, will the local electorate remember?]
Pending the ‘Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ approval; a further €136m will be also invested beyond 2024.
Speaking after a meeting with Tipperary County Council’s elected representatives yesterday, ‘Operations Lead‘ speaking for Irish Water, Ms Catherine McDonough said; “Irish Water is committed to providing quality water and wastewater services for the people of Tipperary. There is a strategic and targeted approach to infrastructure developments and proper investment is allocated for improving water and wastewater treatment plants, strengthening networks, supporting housing and economic growth, and protecting the environment. All of which are providing a more quality service for now and years to come.
As part of the Leakage Reduction Programme, almost 30km of old and problematic watermains across the county have been replaced in Newport, Kilcommon, Garrykennedy, Ballyglass, Tullakeady, Clonmore, Thurles, Clonmel and Templetouhy; and next year we plan to replace approximately 17km throughout the county.
This year has been challenging so far for certain parts of Tipperary with the warm weather and drought we experienced. This put some water supplies under immense pressure and resulted in some water restrictions, outages, loss of water pressure, and in some cases, Boil Water Notices.
I want to thank the people of Tipperary for playing their part in conserving water throughout the Summer and for having patience while we tried to restore their water supply. We have invested a lot in the local infrastructure to limit the impact this can have. We have accomplished a significant amount with our colleagues in Tipperary County Council over the last number of years, and we have more work to do as we continue providing a quality service for the people of Tipperary “.
Irish Water are also investing €65 million to upgrade and standardise disinfection systems across Ireland. In Tipperary, 21 Water Treatment Plants have had upgrades of their disinfection systems to date and upgrades at the remaining eight plants will be completed by the end of 2023.
The National Water Resources Plan is Irish Water’s plan to identify how we will provide a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable water supply to our customers for now and into the future whilst safeguarding the environment.
It will set out how we will balance the supply and demand for drinking water over the short, medium, and long term and ensure we have a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone.
North Tipperary is included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the Eastern and Midlands region – and was recently adopted by IW. The remaining parts of Tipperary will be included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the south-east which will be published for public consultation in 2023.
More limited details on the plan are available HERE.
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