Letterkenny residents' anger over 84 water outages in eight months

Residents in an area of Letterkenny have experienced 84 water outages since September.

The frustrations of residents of Bomany, Newmills, Conwal and Tullygay, who face constant water supply issues, was raised again at the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District meeting.

Homeowners in these areas were without water for 10 days in the last two weeks.

The Mayor of the Letterkenny-Milford MD, Councillor Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly told the monthly MD meeting that residents in Bomany have experienced 84 outages since September.

Councillor Kelly said that the mental health of some residents is deteriorating over the matter. He said the water problems have been ongoing in Conwal and Newmills for the last 17 years.

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“It’s absolutely ridiculous what is going on,” Councillor Kelly said.

“Residents are reporting it constantly and getting nowhere. They are at their wit's end and deservedly so.

"People have had to leave their own houses to find facilities elsewhere so they can wash their kids and their clothes. It’s shocking in this day and age."

Councillor Kelly said some people have had to buy new washing machines and dishwashers because the appliances are being damaged by being 'starved of water'.

The Mayor repeated his call for a face-to-face meeting with Uisce Eireann (formerly Irish Water) to address the issues.

Councillors have an online meeting with the company on Thursday, but Councillor Kelly complained that the meetings are a 'tick the box exercise'.

"We are getting nowhere," Cllr Kelly said. "The team in the council here are trying hard to get this resolved but I feel they are also getting let down by Irish Water, we have to get more action.

"The residents at Conwal, Tullygay and Bomany fear that if there was a house fire, there is not a drop of water to feed a fire engine. I know we have an appliance in the fire station to take water out, but that is neither here nor there, Irish Water have a responsibility for this."

Councillor Kelly called for a report to examine if there is sufficient water supply in the area if a fire were to occur.

Councillor Ciaran Brogan added his frustration over the lack of face-to-face communication between Irish Water and elected members.

"It's very serious to think that we are public representatives and they choose to ignore us, the very least they could do is tell us where they are at," he said, suggesting that the problem should be raised higher than Donegal County Council level, but at Oireachtas level.