Irish Water warn further droughts possible in Tipperary as two reservoirs almost run dry

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“We are on a knife-edge across the county”.

That’s according to Irish Water who say that other areas of Tipperary could be hit by drought if we don’t get more rainfall and if conservation efforts aren’t stepped up.

An old borehole is to be reactivated to help with the severe shortage on the Coalbrook and The Commons supplies in the county.

Speaking to Tipp FM News today, Operations Lead with Irish Water, Duane O’Brien says they hope that this will alleviate the problem in that particular area:

“This borehole is in the Ballingarry area. It was previously used some years back and we’re now reactivating it. We just need to install a treatment facility on it to make sure we have good quality and reliable water coming from it.

“It’s a small enough borehole but it should help alleviate the water shortages.

“There were some manganese issues in the borehole, which is common in boreholes in that area. So now we’ll have a treatment system able to take away those particles.”

Mr O’Brien is warning that some other supplies are also under pressure now:

“We are experiencing strong reductions in supply and increased demand on two of our larger schemes in the Galtee area, which is Cashel and the surrounding areas, and also in Clonmel Town.

“Again, we are considering nationally a water conservation order, similar to the drought in 2018.

“We’re asking everyone just to conserve water if they can. If they observe any leaks, they can ring them into us and we’ll try and get out to them. We’re also asking people not to power wash and other common sense measures.”