'Huge urgency' for Longford water main upgrade to get underway

A contractor has been appointed to carry out the water main upgrade from Carrickboy to Ballymahon and replace a problematic and porous pipe that frequently bursts and has adversely affected thousands of residents and business owners.

Representatives at last Ballymahon Municipal District meeting received the update from Uisce Éireann who will start site investigation works in the near future with the water main upgrade work due to commence later this year.

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Fianna Fáil Councillor Pat O'Toole said it was encouraging that there has finally been a positive update, but Legan-based Councillor Paul Ross stated they have had their hopes dashed so many times during the past 18 months that he is not getting carried away.

The area has been described by the local Fine Gael councillor as being the 'worst in the country' for outages and there has been repeated calls by householders, business owners and from local representatives for Uisce Éireann to take urgent action.
Over 6,000 residents in the Ballymahon, Legan, Ballymahon, Carrickedmond, Forgney and Ardagh areas have regularly had to endure frequent bursts and loss of water supply since 2019.

There has been increasing annoyance, exasperation and anger with eight outages in the 11 day period between Friday, May 9 and Tuesday, May 20 and the tally was well into the double figures by the end of last month.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Pat O'Toole said the majority of the bursts have occurred on the N55 stretch of road between Ballymahon and Carrickedmond Church and he believes in the last few weeks they have 'probably had a burst every second day'.

"We have had a memo that came in from Irish Water to our monthly meeting last Tuesday to say that they have conducted a tender process and a contractor has been appointed to install 5.4 kilometres of new wavin piping.

"The current one is a very old mains so that is one of the reasons it bursts so often and that will run from Toome crossroads towards Carrickedmond Church and as 90% of the bursts are on that stretch of road.

Cllr O'Toole stated they met Uisce Éireann officials after Storm Éowyn back in February and they put it to them that they had been hearing about this contract going out to tender for on numerous occasions, but it had not happened.

Cllr O'Toole said he believes the significant number of water outages in May and the negative reaction and publicity had led to action and the work is due to start in July.

"I think that was the catalyst in the end to say this is just happening so many times we couldn't go on with it.

"There is a huge urgency, there was no water in Ballymahon on Christmas Day and ironically there was no water in Ballymahon on Easter Sunday.

"That's just taking those two days in isolation but the impact it has been having on businesses, on farms, on schools, on ordinary households, it's gone way beyond anything people could comprehend.

"I was getting calls every second day."

Cllr Ross is not fully convinced.

There has been four bursts during the past week, I hope it's true but I won't believe it until I see diggers in the ground.”

Cllr Ross has submitted a motion for this week's monthly meeting of Longford County Council where he is seeking a meeting with Uisce Éireann senior management to resolve the 'serious issue' of the Carrickboy to Ballymahon water main.

'This main is bursting on a daily basis causing hardship for families, businesses and farms and there is no information available as to when the upgrade is due to start or what is causing the delay. This level of service is unacceptable and this issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible'.

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