We're not out of the woods yet.
Following weeks of uncharacteristically warm weather, and quite a distinctive lack of rainwater falling in Ireland this summer, a series of restrictions have been put in place to curb water usage in an attempt to protect water supply.
In a statement issued by Irish Water on Thursday afternoon, the utility company state that they are continuing to work with local authorities in the Greater Dublin Area with a view to introducing night-time restrictions in a bid to avoid widespread outages later this year.
"Irish Water and the local authorities are working through over 800 district metre areas to establish where water supplies can be restricted and for how long while minimizing the impact to homes and businesses. This will be balanced against how much water can be saved through these restrictions.
"A final decision is expected tomorrow (Friday) that will have the full details of what is to come. Restrictions are likely to begin early next week."
There are already over 20 schemes across the country already on restrictions. These are listed on
Irish Water's website.
Speaking about this move, Irish Water Engineer and Corporate Affairs Manager, Kate Gannon said that a number of initiatives are in place in an attempt to prevent future limitations.
“Introducing restrictions was an option that Irish Water hoped could be avoided because of the inevitable impact on homes and businesses," she said.
"Our water engineers have been working closely with the local authorities to see what measures can be taken that will save the water we need but also try to learn the lessons from the outages that were caused following restrictions in the aftermath of Storm Emma.
“Placing night-time restrictions on homes and businesses is not something Irish Water want to have to do. The very positive conservation measures that are being taken by the public in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath are available to see on our website where a graph is tracking usage.
"We are monitoring the situation, but the weather is not changing, the rain is not coming. Something else has to be done to protect water supply and avoid widespread outages in the autumn.
“A final decision will be taken tomorrow when more detail will be issued regarding the timings and the affected areas.”
