'Residents and business owners have had enough' with Co Longford water outages

A councillor has said a water main upgrade 'cannot begin quick enough' following several water outages in the Ballymahon Municipal District area between Saturday and Monday with significant disruption for local people.

A contractor was appointed last month to carry out the water main upgrade from Carrickboy to Ballymahon and replace a porous pipe that frequently bursts impacting thousands of residents and business owners in the Ballymahon, Legan, Carrickedmond, Forgney and Ardagh areas.

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Cllr Paul Ross said a large number of residents woke up on Sunday morning to a reduced supply after two outages and significant disruption over the weekend.

"There wasn't actually a burst on Sunday evening, but Ballymahon never got their water pressure back.

"That was because the water tower was emptied Sunday morning with the bursts. "

The Fine Gael representative said the water tower will not fill during the day in Ballymahon because of the local need and the pressure cannot build up quick enough.

"It only refills at night," he explained.

Cllr Ross said there was another burst on the N55 in the Carrickboy to Ballymahon area late on Sunday night that caused further problems.

It was fixed at 9am on Monday, however, there was still significant disruption.

Cllr Ross stated that meant that Ballymahan had no water again on Monday morning.

"The reservoir has to refill.

"But by virtue of the fact that Ballymahon was refilling, Edgeworthstown, Legan and Ardagh had no water on Monday.

"The burst was fixed at 10am on Monday but they only got their water back in Ardagh at 6.30pm.

“The water main upgrade cannot start quick enough for the people of Ballymahon,” Cllr Ross added.

The local representative said people are very frustrated by the situation.

“We're all anxiously waiting for the start of the works. “We've been told quarter three 2025 and we're now in quarter three 2025.”

Cllr Ross said residents and business owners have had enough and they need and deserve some level of certainty in relation to water.

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He stated there had been a belief by some that there had been more than two bursts due to the disruption over the weekend.

“There were two bursts.

“But by virtue of the fact that Ballymahon reservoir was not filling on Sunday night, it left it worse than normal on Monday and that made the situation worse.

An Uisce Éireann spokeswoman said, "As part of the National Leakage Reduction Programme, Uisce Éireann has appointed a contractor and design is being finalised.

"The project will replace over 5.4 km of old and problematic water mains prone to frequent bursts and outages along the N55 between Carrickedmond and Ballymahon.

"Due to the frequent bursts on this section of the network, Uisce Éireann has prioritised this project.