On the water frontline: Mammoth behind the scenes effort to get water back flowing into Longford taps

The teamwork of a frontline core group of 20 workers from Uisce Éireann, the local authority, Coillte, the ESB and local electricians have been praised for restoring water to tens of thousands of Longford people.

David Gibbons, the company's Water Operations Lead for Longford, who outlined the collaboration at the five main water treatment plants in county Longford, also commended dozens of people in back office positions who provided vital support.

He described storm Éowyn as formerly what would have been considered a once in a '100 year event' but what may in the future become a 'once in 50 year event' due to climate change.

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The Longford Leader met Mr Gibbons at Lough Forbes water treatment plant, the largest water treatment plant in the county which produces around 10,000 cubic meters of water (the equivalent of 10 million litres).

Lough Forbes water treatment plant is one of five main WTP's in county Longford along with others in Abbeyshrule, Granard, Smear and Newtowncashel/Lanesboro and they serve approximately 35,000 people.

Mr Gibbons said all five required generators to operate following storm Éowyn, while Abbeyshrule water treatment plant received mains power before its generator became operational and it was then relocated to Galway.

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Mr Gibbons said at Lough Forbes they supply around 7,000 people in a very large area which encompasses Newtownforbes, Longford town, Drumlish, Clondra and Ballymacormack."

"There were a large number of trees down on the laneway into the Lough Forbes water treatment plant that had to be cleared on the morning of storm Éowyn," he added.

Mr Gibbons said by 12-noon the worst of the storm was over but a lot of their caretakers had to deal with fallen trees in front of their houses before they faced clearing the road into the Lough Forbes plant.

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"In fairness it was a great team effort to clear that road, Uisce Éireann staff, the Coillte harvester was brought in and Longford County Council themselves so it was a group effort just to get into the plant.

"Then when we came in here we realised we were without power and I contacted the ESB and got a very good understanding of the timeline we were going to be dealing with," he said. "I was told it was going to be a week."

Mr Gibbons said he knew immediately he was going to have to need a generator in and they got one on Saturday.

"It's a 500KvA generator brought up from Cantwell's in Thurles and they were really helpful in sizing the load for the whole plant," he added.

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Mr Gibbons said it was then a case of getting the generator wired in and connected by electricians from EMCA Electrical and Automation who worked well into the night on Saturday.

"We got water production on Saturday night and caretakers stayed here then right through the night to get water," he added.

Mr Gibbons explained the system had to be reset to operate effectively again.

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"You have to backwash everything, it's a sand filtration system we have here and it takes quite a bit of time, about four hours, backwashing and processing to get the whole plant up and running again," he said. "Then you fill the water and that can take up to 10 hours to fill reservoirs and gradually get the reservoirs back up to the required level to get that pressure to go back out to the network to serve the communities."

Mr Gibbons stated it was quite the achievement that by Sunday/Monday water was going back out to the network.

"That's a pretty quick turnaround and that did not happen without the collaborative efforts of everybody involved and that was from your Uisce Éireann caretakers , to the electricians, to the contractors, whether they be the generator providers or the contractors taking down the trees on the road to the ESB, all of us together made that happen," he said. "It's extraordinary work, very little sleep, the phone network was a really big challenge for us as well when the power went down and trying to communicate with each other. "

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Mr Gibbons stated it was a continuous effort to get the water supply back up and running again with vulnerable users, nursing homes and large industries such as Panelto, C&D Foods, Abbott.

Mr Gibbons said two Uisce Éireann workers are based at the Lough Forbes water treatment plant, but there are a "lot of people coordinating things in the background".

Mr Gibbons has urged people to visit the Uisce Éireann website at https://www.water.ie or phone 1800 278 278 to get updates on any water supply issue caused by the storm Éowyn.