Good news as drinking water restrictions on Achill Island are lifted

A Do Not Consume drinking water notice in place on the Achill Public Water Supply since August 7 has been lifted.

The water quality sampling has confirmed that the water is now safe to drink following a reduction in demand to normal levels and reduced temperatures in the raw water coming from the lake to the water treatment plant.

The action had hit a number of group water schemes including Dooniver GWS, Saulia No 2 GWS, Crumpaun GWS, Dooega GWS, Shraheens, Achill GWS, Dugort No 1 GWS, Dugort No. 2 GWS, Dugort East GWS, Valley 1 GWS and Valley 3 GWS.

The restrictions have now been removed with immediate effect.

Irish Water’s Asset Operations Lead, Ger Greally, commented: “Irish Water and Mayo County Council thank the residents, businesses and visitors to Achill who were affected by this notice for their patience and cooperation until demand and temperatures dropped to normal levels.

"We thank the public for their efforts in conserving water wherever possible and ask them to continue doing so over the weekend while the network refills following the reservoir cleaning.

“We acknowledge and thank our colleagues in Mayo County Council who worked tirelessly since this notice was issued to ensure customers received a continuous water supply at their taps for essential handwashing and hygiene and at the 28 tankers around the island providing alternative drinking water supplies.

“We thank the Civil Defence for supporting us in the delivery of bottled water to vulnerable customers.”

Some upgrade works have taken place at the Acorrymore Water Treatment Plant to ensure that if demand rises to an unsustainable level, along with a rise in temperatures, that the plant will shut down - allowing both Irish Water and Mayo County Council time to assess the situation and put plans in place to prevent a further exceedance.

All reservoirs on the island have also been cleaned.

Customers may experience some intermittent outages this evening and over the weekend as full supply returns to the network following the reservoir cleaning.

Meetings are also scheduled between Irish Water and Mayo County Council to discuss longer term solutions to this problem.

Business customers will receive a 40 per cent rebate on the cost of the supply of water to their businesses for the duration of the do not consume notice and this will be back dated to August 7, 2020.

If anyone has any queries they can call the Irish Water customer care helpline 24/7 on 1850 278 278.