The Dublin Community Blog

Anyone who lives in Ireland knows it’s a damp country. I wont say it rains every day, but it’s fair to say most days would see a drop or two of water somewhere in Ireland. Unfortunately if you live in Dublin you also know that it only takes a couple of sunny days before the city council is declaring a drought and cutting off water to some part of the city or other.

Of course for years it has not been their fault. It was people like you and me who watered our gardens, washed our cars or left the tap on while brushing our teeth. In Dublin water was a precious commodity and we were wasting it. Now it turns out that Dublin Council is doing a little bit of maintenance on some pipes. 100 year old cast-iron pipes that have some problems.

Dublin City Council deputy city engineer Tom Leahy says because of the pipes’ age and increased workload, “many of the old water mains are leaking or corroded, resulting in millions of litres of high-quality drinking water being lost every day and poor water pressure in some areas”.

800 kilometers of pipes will be updated over the next 5 years. That’s a lot of work, and a lot of taps left on while brushing teeth. Ok, I should not be so sarcastic towards them, we all knew the pipes leaked and we all wanted them to fix the mains but it’s nice to hear them admit the problem was so bad.