County Waterford's Water Supply Network is undergoing a massive modernisation which will result in big improvements for thousands of Irish Water customers throughout the county.
Irish Water and Waterford City and County Council are working in a number of locations across the county to replace old water treatment plants that are no longer fit for purpose with modern state-of-the-art treatment facilities.
At the start of this rationalisation process, Waterford had over 100 water treatment plants – more than 10% of all the water treatment plants in the country and four times the number of treatment plants in all of Northern Ireland.
Many of these water treatment plants are past their useful life and have issues with water quality and yields. Decommissioning these older plants and connecting the areas supplied by them to neighbouring, upgraded water treatment plants will ensure that customers will benefit from better quality water supplied via modern treatment and distribution networks.
A case in point is the Clonea Power water supply which, for decades, had problems with high levels of manganese in the water source resulting in brown coloured water which, while safe to drink, impacted on household appliances and overall water quality.
To address this, the water treatment plant in Rathgormack was upgraded and 10.2km of new water mains installed, allowing Clonea Power and four other older water treatment plants in the area (Monadiha, Feddens, Whitestown and Clonea O'Sullivan) to be decommissioned.
"We are very pleased to be able to address what was a long-running problem for the people of Clonea Power, while also providing other communities in the area with a much better and more secure water supply. Customers in these areas can now rest assured that they are being supplied with water that is treated to the highest standards," said David Sharry, Capital Programmes Regional Lead with Irish Water.
The gates were closed at the old Clonea Power treatment plant for the last time by local councillors Seanie Power and Liam Brazil who also got a tour of the new treatment plant in Rathgormack.
The councillors welcomed the completion of the work in Rathgormack and the ongoing efforts to modernise the water supply network throughout the county.
For more information on this project and our other ongoing projects around the country, please visit our Project and Plans page.