Wexford Residents Asked To Reduce Non Essential Water Use During The Hot Weather

Uisce Eireann is asking people in Wexford to conserve water as best they can over the coming days.

The utility says the hot weather is placing an exceptionally high demand on their services which is putting pressure on water supplies.

It's urging customers supplied by the Wexford Town, Fardystown, Taylorstown and Gorey water treatment plants to reduce their non essential water use where possible.

Padraig Lyng from Uisce Eireann says they're under a tremendous amount of pressure right now:

"We're currently seeing a water demand across county Wexford running at around 9 or 10% higher than normal.

"To put that into perspective, we're producing enough additional drinking water every day to supply approximately 25,000 people at the moment over our normal average supply."

We're being asked to put off watering our gardens and take shorter showers to reduce pressure on our water supplies.

The Fardystown plant outside of Wexford Town is currently producing 13 million litres of water a day, compared to a normal output of 10.2 million.

Padraig has these tips for how you can save some water this summer.

"Reduce your use of sprinklers and hoses when outside, use a watering can instead, take shorter showers, only run full dishwashers and washing machines and check your homes and businesses for any leaks.

"You can find further information on our website at www.water.ie/conservation."

Officials say they're monitoring current water levels around the county but don't expect any shortages as things stand.

However, Padraig says they are working hard and could use the public's help to take some of the pressure off.

"We are trying to get through this the best that we can but (the warming will last) at least for this period of hot weather and possibly over the rest of the summer depending on how the demand goes and if we can keep up with it.

"At the moment, the demand is just way too high for our supplies and production."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.