Water supply turned off - who is running this mess?

fergalr

I'm in Terenure, and since 21:00 or so, the water has been off. It was also turned off earlier on today, from morning until around 18:00.

From:
http://www.sdcc.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=523&Itemid=54

Updated: Monday 11th January @ 1:00 pm.

Normal demand in South Dublin County is 71 million litres per day and at the present time demand is some 78 million litres.

The Council will manage demand to ensure continuity of overall supply and this will include reducing pressure in the county overnight.

So, this message is saying that there has been an increase in consumption, over the normal usage, of 7m litres - or about 8%

Really, what the hell is happening with the way this country is being run?

An 8% increase in usage of a critical piece of infrastructure, such as the water supply, for a few weeks, should not cause the critical piece of infrastructure to fail! I'm wondering, why is everyone accepting this like its understandable?

Is there anyone else who thinks this is not acceptable for a modern developed country?
I'm aware people down the country have had lack of water facilities for a while now too - but its even more unacceptable for systems to fail in urban areas than more isolated rural areas - the effort to stop such failure must be in some sense proportional to the number of people affected by it.

But regardless, there should be no shortage of water in Ireland. We just had floods!

Its like the fact that there isn't enough grit for the roads is accepted as not being a big deal, because, as various government officials have said, the weather is 'unprecendented'.

From
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0107/breaking1.htm

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the “unprecedented” conditions had not just affected roads but had severely impacted education, water supplies and agriculture.

Well, Met Eireann tell us we had the coldest Decemember since the 60s.

It was the coldest December for 28 years over most of the country

But here's the thing, Minister for the Environment, that's not the same as being 'unprecedented'.

In fact, it means there was precedent for this only 30 years ago. And, when you are considering winter weather, 30 winters isn't exactly a lot of data points in the past.

So we really should not be accepting this sort of BS excuse.


The people who are paid good money to run the various critical systems in our country - our Ministers, our civil servants, and our county councils - should be designing and running the critical systems, like the water, the electricity, the roads - so that predictable events, such as those that have happened recently enough don't cause systemic failure.


If the water usage increases 8% then the water should not end up turning off.
If it increased 800%, with no precedent, that'd another story.

People should not be saying 'this hasn't happened for 30 years' as a get out clause.
Instead they should be saying 'and the worst part is, we had similar conditions only 30 years ago, so we should have planned for this' and tendering their resignations.

Either that, or they should be fired.


Like whoever was responsible for maintaining the critical piece of rail infrastructure on the Dublin-Belfast line should have been.


But no one resigns. No one gets fired. And people seem to accept the BS explanations.



What the hell will happen in this country if we ever do have a large scale, genuinely, unprecedented disaster, of the kind that really does seem inconceivable now?

El Weirdo

Have a cup of tea and calm down.

Sorry.

jumpguy

Relax man, according to the article they're reducing pressure, NOT turning off the water. This would only matter for things like electic showers and things.

However, an 8% increase does seem modest. I'd love to see the maximum it can handle.

jif

IBTM to R n R.

burn them burn the bastards!

fergalr

jumpguy wrote: »

Relax man, according to the article they're reducing pressure, NOT turning off the water. This would only matter for things like electic showers and things.

Well, most of terenure, which isn't exactly the sticks, has had its water off earlier today (checked with some neighbours, and other people from locality). I wish it was only reduced pressure. I also wish the info was on the web somewhere.

jumpguy wrote: »

However, an 8% increase does seem modest. I'd love to see the maximum it can handle.

Hopefully this won't happen!

brummytom

*stretches*

Well that was a nice read, God I could do with a drink


/fills water filter

fergalr

jif wrote: »

IBTM to R n R.

burn them burn the bastards!

LOL

Well - unlike in RnR, if anyone has an opposing view point that can point out why its completely reasonable and that this couldn't have been planned for, I'd be delighted to hear it.

jumpguy

fergalr wrote: »

Well, most of terenure, which isn't exactly the sticks, has had its water off earlier today (checked with some neighbours, and other people from locality). I wish it was only reduced pressure. I also wish the info was on the web somewhere.

And you're sure it's not frozen pipes?

445279.ie

There was a woman on local radio in Limerick this morning saying she has no water since 14 December :eek:

Now that's a problem :rolleyes:

marco_polo

In addition to the rise in consumption, ice does not flow into reservoirs all that well?

Mr. Presentable

There's no water here either. Tallaght. Off most of the day.

fergalr

jumpguy wrote: »

And you're sure it's not frozen pipes?

Yeah, am sure - it was running this morning until around 0930 or so, then turned off till around 1800, then back off after. Should have been frozen between night and mid morning if it was pipes.

But the main reason I know it wasn't just frozen pipes is that while we had no frozen pipes in the neighbourhood up to now, suddenly everyone nearby (and I talked to quite a few people in the terenure area) has all the water go off and come back on at the same times.

Proxy

Water turned off for my neighbours at home as well. I'm in Christchurch and my waters fine here though. For now. My colleague in Finglas told me this morning he noticed quite a bit of sediment in his tap water (which he had been drinking), so i'd be careful in drinking tap water, folks...

Alanstrainor

Aye, no water here either...it sucks.

Goldme

water off in celbridge too = bit of a joke really in this age sack them all

BluesBerry

They should have knocked of water at an hour where people wouldn't notice ie between 2am-5am they could save water without pissing off people

maybe if they sort out all the burst piping around the country that is losing gallons each week and stop blaming households then maybe people might understand

stovelid

The immediate vicinity of Stovelid's laptop. One minute ago.

fergalr

marco_polo wrote: »

In addition to the rise in consumption, ice does not flow into reservoirs all that well?

Indeed - although there was a thaw for most of the day today, so hopefully it'll replenish them.
Perhaps we do need bigger reservoirs to avoid this sort of situation.

Thats up to the people whose job it is to make sure there are sufficient water reserves.

If a giant lizard rose out of the Irish sea and drank all the reservoirs, that'd be a different story, because that is genuinely unprecedented.
But the reservoirs must be built big enough to supply water even theres a winter of the sort that can happen every 30 years, and with a large margin of error please. (perhaps we are due for a string of such winters now? Very hard to say).

EDIT:
Oh, and if giant lizards *do* show up every 30 years intending to drink the reservoirs then I expect the relevant people to have a plan to deal with them, after the first one or two.

Overheal

Hahahaha....Im reading this from a hot bath.

My name is URL

ffs.. at least it's off in a controlled way..

I was without water for 4 days because the mains pipe had frozen and I couldn't even get to it to try and defrost it

fcuking Dublin whingers =p

Howitzer

water off here too - Rathfarnham area.

What a loada toss. Hope its back on in the morning for a cuppa.

A bit of an aul notice through the door wouldn't have hurt... I thought it would just be weak pressure - not shut off.

marco_polo

fergalr wrote: »

Indeed - although there was a thaw for most of the day today, so hopefully it'll replenish them.
Perhaps we do need bigger reservoirs to avoid this sort of situation.

Thats up to the people whose job it is to make sure there are sufficient water reserves.

If a giant lizard rose out of the Irish sea and drank all the reservoirs, that'd be a different story. But they must be built big enough to supply water even theres a winter of the sort that can happen every 30 years, and with a large margin of error please. (perhaps we are due for a string of such winters now? Very hard to say).

EDIT:
Oh, and if giant lizards *do* show up every 30 years intending to drink the reservoirs then I expect the relevant people to have a plan to deal with them after the first one or two.

The uncomfortable truth is that the supply for Dublin has been tight for many years, and is probably not going to get much better in the near future. This article from 2007 makes sobering reading.

On average only 1% excess supply margin in the greater Dublin area.

http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=163&n=355&a=1390

Problem is simply that there are just no substantial unused water sources available on the East coast.

dresden8

fergalr wrote: »

I'm in Terenure,

You're not that bint off the AIB ads are you, if you are feck off to south america and learn the tango for the bleedin' winter and stop moaning.

Smug bitch.

jif

Overheal wrote: »

Hahahaha....Im reading this from a hot bath.

watch out for karma now.___________^_______^_______[plop]...GGZzzzzzzzz......................

consultech

If your water is turned off; you should call in to the neighbours and tell them to stop running their taps overnight...

Dempsey

Like Australia, we should have a Minister for Water

alwaysadub

Oh that's what taps are for-water comes out of them. After 2weeks without any running water i'd kinda forgotten!.
I do think they could've given a bit of notice before they turned off water totally or done it in the middle of the night when there would be less disruption to people.

ScumLord

fergalr wrote: »

So, this message is saying that there has been an increase in consumption, over the normal usage, of 7m litres - or about 8%

That 8% rise could just as well be from water pissing out of main pipes that burst because they wheren't laid properly.

'

fergalr

marco_polo wrote: »

The uncomfortable truth is that the supply for Dublin has been tight for many years, and is probably not going to get much better in the near future. This article from 2007 makes sobering reading.

On average only 1% excess supply margin in the greater Dublin area.

http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=163&n=355&a=1390

Problem is simply that there are just no substantial unused water sources available on the East coast.

That's a scary article.
Read these quotes:

Something eventually will tip the scales and unfortunately it takes a public health scare to really raise the issue. I don't think we are far away from that happening." [...]
"It would be incredible if we don't have a major incident. Everyone hopes there won't be one but it is very difficult to say that this pressure won't lead to something major," he says.

"We have 1% spare capacity at the moment," says Leahy. "If that turns to minus 1% then we have immediate impacts on our customers. It is very tight. We really should have a 10% margin between supply and demand."
[...]
"There is very, very small capacity available beyond normal circumstances. So if we had a very dry winter or summer we would have fairly dramatic water problems in Dublin."

I think thats shocking.

Basically, its sounds like its accepted and known that the water infrastructure is in a bad way, the people that know reckon we could have a major public health scare as a result, and yet the problem is not being fixed.

I don't know what the fix is, I'm not an expert here; maybe its expensive, maybe its political; but either way, it has to happen - we can't our have national infrastructure in that state; if we have one of the incidents mentioned then it'll cost a lot more anyway.

As long as issues like this persist, people are not doing their job properly.

Jev/N

IIRC according to the news earlier, water usage had been up 25%, that's a big difference!

professore

consultech wrote: »

If your water is turned off; you should call in to the neighbours and tell them to stop running their taps overnight...

If the tap is not run overnight then the pipes freeze. Then you have no water. If we hadn't done that we would have had no water over christmas. The pipes freeze because of poor engineering putting them only an inch below ground. Pathetic. I wonder do governments in other first world countries blame the citizens when they try to look after themselves? We had no water for nearly 2 weeks because of flooding in cork city. Then many of our neighbours had none from a few days before christmas until now. Now the water is shut off again because of burst pipes all over the city. And this is our fault ? Pathetic. And all the while Noel Dempsey suns himself in malta.