Half of their drinking water treatment plants are at risk of failure also.
250,000 Irish households are facing the very real possibility of having to boil their water after The Independent exclusively revealed that over half of Irish Water’s treatment plants are at risk of failure.
This news comes on the back of the recent news that Ireland can no longer avail of a loophole in EU law which will allow us to avoid water charges now that they’ve been brought in.
According to this report, 472 plants posed a risk and with the introduction of more stringent and proactive regulations about the quality of water produced, Irish Water looks set to immediately shut down any plants that don’t meet their standards and issue boil-water notices if a problem emerges.
The previous system was different though as boil-water notices were only circulated after a water sample didn’t meet the standards and posed a risk to human health.
Speaking with The Independent, a spokesperson said “it is possible that more boil-water notices will have to be issued, even in places where no problem appears to exist today. We believe about half of the plants are not capable of dealing with all conditions for the raw water they are treating. If they don’t meet the standard, they have to be dealt with.”
35,000 Irish homes are currently affected by boil-water notices.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
