Homes and businesses across Wexford town are continuing to face major disruption following a major burst on a water main serving Wexford town.
The disruption began on Saturday evening, with large parts of Wexford town reporting either a major drop in water pressure or a complete outage.
It continued into Sunday, with many local businesses expressing their frustration at having to close. This frustration continued into Monday morning, with the latest estimates from Uisce Éireann stating that outages and loss of pressure are due to persist with repair works to continue until 9 p.m.
Uisce Éireann says that the burst has had a major detrimental impact on water levels at the reservoir serving Wexford town, with disruptions impacting large parts of Wexford town, Barntown, out as far as the Mountain Bar.
“While water is now returning, reservoir levels remain low and full supply is not expected to return until later this evening,” Pádraig Lyng of Uisce Éireann said.
“Customers in Newtown, Commons, Barntown, Wexford Town, Colestown, Mountain Bar and surrounding areas may continue to experience interruptions to their water supply.
“Uisce Éireann understands how disruptive it is to be without water, particularly for families, businesses and vulnerable customers, and crews are making every effort to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible.”
On Sunday, alternative water supplies were provided at Clonard Church, St Joseph’s Community Centre and some local housing estates.
Uisce Éireann recommends that customers allow three to four hours after the estimated restoration time for supply to fully return.
Uisce Éireann’s 24-hour customer care number is 1800 278278 for those in difficulty.
On Monday morning, hundreds of parents were left scrambling for alternative childcare after a number of providers announced they would be unable to open due to the water outage. Several local businesses also had to put alternative arrangements in place, with some not able to open once again.
Among those to express their frustration on Sunday was Cappuccino’s on South Main Street, who somewhat tongue in cheek, issued “a massive heartfelt thank you to Uisce Éireann for effectively shutting down our business and ensuring we couldn’t open our doors”.
“We really appreciate their help in keeping our staff sent home and our customers turned away.
“We look forward to welcoming (our customers) back just as soon as Irish Water decides to let us run our business again,” they concluded. The café had re-opened on Monday morning, following a frustrating missed day of trading.