Thousands of households in the east of Ireland will be without water this weekend as Uisce Éireann sets up local water banks.
This is due to a crucial upgrade which is nearing completion and will secure the water supply for over 350,000 customers across North County Dublin.
The project is heading into its final stages and as a result from 1am to 11am on Sunday, February 26, many areas will be without a supply.
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A statement published by Uisce Éireann explained: "In order to safely facilitate the new connection, it will be necessary for the water supply to be switched off for a period of time until the connection works are completed.
"To minimise disruption as much as possible to homes and businesses, the outage will commence this Sunday, 26 February from 1am until approximately 11am. It is planned that supply will begin to return after this time.
"However, due to the size of the pipes and network, it could take up to 10 hours for normal supply to return to all customers as water refills the network, especially for those on higher ground or at the end of the network."
The outage will impact customers in the following areas:
- Swords
- Santry
- Malahide
- Portmarnock
- Kinsealy
- Ballyboughal
- Lissenhall
- Donabate
- Portrane
- Turvey
- Loughshinny
- Palmerstown (Fingal)
- Rush
- Lusk
Nearby M1 service stations and surrounding areas will also be affected by the outage.
The statement continued: "As per best practice, most homes and businesses will have on-site water storage to provide a backup source of water for sanitation purposes. Uisce Éireann advises customers to familiarise themselves with their storage capacity.
"Vulnerable customers who have registered with Uisce Éireann receive direct communications for planned and unplanned outages lasting more than four hours."
To support customers, alternative water supplies will be available at the following locations until supplies have returned to normal:
- Tesco Shopping Centre in Rush
- Rathmore Park Car Park in Lusk
- Seaview Park Car Park in Portrane
- Donabate/Portrane Community Centre Car Park
- St. Finian's Catholic Church in Swords South
- St. Colmcille's GAA Club in Swords North
- Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Malahide
- Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Club
Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and, as a precaution, boil the water before drinking.
Speaking about the critical nature of the project in terms of the GDA’s water supply, William McKnight, Uisce Éireann, commented: "The water supply and demand balance in Dublin and the wider Greater Dublin Area is tight as we use almost every drop of water produced each day.
"The delivery of this project along with a number of other ambitious projects across the GDA will not only help increase the security and resilience of the drinking water supply, but it will also provide the infrastructure needed to support the building of houses and schools and attract new industry to allow companies to expand and grow."
He added: "We understand that this necessary outage may be disruptive to the local community which is why experienced water services crews will work throughout the night to complete the connection and restore normal water supply as quickly as possible.
"I’d like to reassure our customers that the short-term inconvenience will be overshadowed by the long-term benefits that this new pipeline will deliver across North County Dublin."
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