Buncrana boil water notice lifted after eight days

The boil water notice on the Buncrana public water supply has been lifted by Uisce Éireann.

Following consultations with the Health Service Executive, Uisce Éireann confirmed that customers supplied by the Slavery Water Treatment Plant can resume normal use of their tap water.

The notice had been issued on Friday, 2 January due to a mechanical issue at the Buncrana (Slavery) Water Treatment Plant which affected the disinfection process. The problem has since been rectified.

Discoloured water was widely reported by homeowners in Buncrana on New Year’s Day following the failure at the plant, which supplies some 4,000 people.

Uisce Éireann said its drinking water experts worked to lift the notice as quickly and as safely as possible. Following satisfactory water sampling results this week and consultation with the Health Service Executive, the restriction has now been removed.

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Uisce Éireann’s Damien O’Sullivan acknowledged the impact of the boil water notice on customers and thanked the community for its support while it was in place.

“Uisce Éireann’s primary focus remains to provide safe and clean drinking water and we worked with our stakeholders to lift the notice as quickly as possible, he said. “We are grateful to customers, elected representatives and the media for their assistance in sharing information on the boil water notice.”

The mechanical failure over the New Year period was the second serious fault to hit the Slavery Water Treatment Plant in just over seven weeks.

In November, a separate fault resulted in low water pressure and widespread outages, which saw water tankers deployed to Buncrana to assist affected residents.