by Louise Doyle
UISCE Éireann has been accused of not being transparent with residents and business owners about the reason behind a water outage in the Falacarragh and Gortahork areas this week.
Cathaoirleach of the Glenties Municipal District, Councillor Michael McClafferty said the silence from the utility is “simply not good enough”.
Cllr McClaffety said communication from the utility is ‘drastically inadequate’, pointing out that he received correspondence from Uisce Éireann on Tuesday acknowledging a complaint he lodged four months ago.
He told the Donegal News that while attempting to report a water outage in Falcarragh yesterday, his complaint was not initially accepted without an Eircode. He also claimed that the person he was lodging the complaint with did not know where Gortahork was.
“This is no good and Uisce Eireann need to come out of hiding and tell people what’s actually wrong with the treatment plant in Gortahork once and for all,” he said.
Cllr McClafferty said Uisce Éireann must meet with local councillors to outline infrastructure issues in the area.
“It’s simply not good enough. I received a call yesterday in relation to a complaint in August, and I was still told they would see what they could do in relation to a meeting I requested with Irish Water about the local issues.”
A spokesperson for Uisce Éireann told the Donegal News yesterday that it was working to restore normal water supply to homes and businesses following an operational issue at Ardsbeg Water Treatment Plant yesterday.
“As a result, water supply to Gortahork, Falcarragh and surrounding areas was impacted for a period of time this morning. Although normal operations have resumed at Ardsbeg Water Treatment Plant, customers on higher ground may still be experiencing outages/ low water pressure. Crews are on the ground working to restore normal water supply as quickly as possible to impacted customers.”
Paul Lyons,Operations Lead for Uisce Éireann, said he understood the inconvenience the issue was causing, adding that the team were “working to restore normal water supply as quickly as possible”.
He added that although normal operations at the Ardsbeg Water Treatment Plant resumed early on Wednesday, customers on higher ground were still experiencing low water pressure.”
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