The (NEW) pipes the pipes are bursting

Grab All Association

Irish Water recently replaced the pipes here in my village and now I'm without water again today. They pipes the removed were around 40 years old and had never burst in my lifetime. In fact the only water outages were when the electricity went off. 1995 and 2013 (storms that knocked the ESB network off) There's at least 3 leaks now in the 4km section they replaced.

The saying If it's not broke don't fix it comes to mind. Bunch of clowns.

Is this the new normal? Funny how places in Louth and Cork recently made the news and yet IW cock ups dont. Rté would no doubt be calling these 6-8 week old pipes Victorian again.

I've my swimming pool to fill, naked water parties, repetitive flushing of my toilet and I need to sprinlkle the lawn 23hrs a day. Other wasteful activities. 😡

Are Am Eye

Well, well, well.

Karangue

What's the weather like op and did you ever think of taking up blogging?

Samaris

That they were forty years old may be a good reason for their replacing (although full sympathy with you for the pipes being poorly fitted now!). By the mid-70s, lead pipes were being phased out, but they do still exist and do eventually leach (such as in Galway after the crypto outbreak in ...2008, I think?). Regulations give lead content for drinking water as max 10ug/l*, but any lead present should be too little to be traceable. Copper and zinc, also old pipe materials, have their own issues (although at least the copper content safely allowable is much higher).

Not sure what the lifespans on the PPE replacements were, but I'd be surprised if it was longer than 30-40 years (and tbh surprised if it was that long).


*one hundreth of a miligram per litre for anyone unsure! Can't do the proper symbol here.

PuppyMcPupFace

If only the rabble hadn't whinged about paying their fare share, perhaps there would be funds for repairs.

McMurphy

PuppyMcPupFace wrote: »

If only the rabble hadn't whinged about paying their fare share, perhaps there would be funds for repairs.

The funds were there, but FG in their wisdom decided to spunk over a billion euro on a billing system with refundant metering in place, gyms , laughing yoga, and top end contracts for uncle Dennis.

In hindsight, would have been much better spent repairing and upgrading the infrastructure first with that billion.

Puts the 50m FF spunked away on e-voting machines into perspective.

PuppyMcPupFace

Rick Shaw wrote: »

The funds were there, but FG in their wisdom decided to spunk over a billion euro on a billing system with refundant metering in place, gyms , laughing yoga, and top end contracts for uncle Dennis.

In hindsight, would have been much better spent repairing and upgrading the infrastructure first with that billion.

Puts the 50m FF spunked away on e-voting machines into perspective.

The Jobstown dickheads would still never have paid.

McMurphy

PuppyMcPupFace wrote: »

The Jobstown dickheads would still never have paid.

I never mentioned anything about jobstown or any other part of the country, your post implied that there was or is a lack of funds to repair the water infrastructure due to people whinging.

I pointed out that the funds were indeed there, and had been shamelessly and irresponsibly spunked away on a pet project by the previous government, instead of actually spending it on upgrading the infrastructure.

You're now off on a tangent about people from jobstown.

Bizzare

PuppyMcPupFace

Rick Shaw wrote: »

I never mentioned anything about jobstown or any other part of the country, your post implied that there was or is a lack of funds to repair the water infrastructure due to people whinging.

I pointed out that the funds were indeed there, and had been shamelessly and irresponsibly spunked away on a pet project by the previous government, instead of actually spending it on upgrading the infrastructure.

You're now off on a tangent about people from jobstown.

Bizzare

Not really. The funds were limited and wouldn't have lasted forever.

Payments needed to be made and you need a billing structure to take payments.

Which many people from the protesting classes would never ever have agreed to pay because "no way, we won't pay".

longshanks

The protesting classes?

SEPT 23 1989

we are blessed that the Victorians knew what they were doing

PuppyMcPupFace

longshanks wrote: »

The protesting classes?

Yeah - how can you can call them working class when the only working they do is of the system ?

enricoh

Hope its not a draw tomorrow in croker , we'll have u bleating on about refs fixing it, money hungry shower, etc, etc

McMurphy

PuppyMcPupFace wrote: »

Not really. The funds were limited and wouldn't have lasted forever.

Payments needed to be made and you need a billing structure to take payments.

Which many people from the protesting classes would never ever have agreed to pay because "no way, we won't pay".

I don't have the inclination to rehash an old argument that has already been done to death over countless threads.

The billion euro wasted on Irish water would have been much, much better spent on upgrading or repairing the infrastructure, that should have been a priority.

When meaningful and worthwhile upgrades were carried out, then the public should have been tapped for the repairs, which obviously would be ongoing, hence the need for a billing system.

The whole Irish water saga was a complete and utter haimes, both financially and politically.

That is a pretty much universally agreed upon now amongst all the political party's, and most right thinking members of the public.

It wasn't the "protesting classes" of Jobstown, Julianstown, or any other town you can think of that created the cock up, and wasted the cash, it was the previous government.

If in doubt, look at the refunds that are now about to be issued, and the "conservation grants" that can't be clawed back. I believe that I read somewhere that this tax was the first and only tax in the history of the state that cost the state more money to implement than they collected.

Ouch.

Now I'll leave you to your already debunked stereotypical cliches.

**heads off to wash his car, water his lawn and refill his pool**

donegaLroad

There were people who had doubts about the skill levels of those who were contracted to install the pipe upgrades. The crowd that were doing our local upgrades left a 2 mile stretch of main road like a dirt track. Two springs gone on my car in 6 weeks, plus 2 anti roll bar links destroyed.

pablo128

PuppyMcPupFace wrote: »

The Jobstown dickheads would still never have paid.

The Jobstown residents paid all their lives, and are still paying today.

They were right to refuse to pay twice though.

mad muffin

Don't get me started on IW! Those shower of incompetent bastards.

Earlier this year, they came to our town to check for underground leaks. No letter nothing. One morning I find myself without water. I go off for the day, come back. Still no water.

Get in touch with IW to see if there are any outages. Nope. Check my mains and they had turned it off, to check for leaks but never turned it back on.

Then some months later, they come back to fix the leaks. Again, no letter to advise of this. I wake up to find the workers ripping the fook out of my front. Again no water. I go off for the day, come back and find my front lawn ripped to fook. The road and foot path covered in mud and shîte. No clean up nothing.

I had to get out the power washer and clean up the mess they left.

The roads and foot paths in town now look like a fooking badly put together jigsaw puzzle.

Fooking useless muppets the lot of them.

donegaLroad

mad muffin wrote: »

Don't get me started on IW! Those shower of incompetent bastards.

Earlier this year, they came to our town to check for underground leaks. No letter nothing. One morning I find myself without water. I go off for the day, come back. Still no water.

Get in touch with IW to see if there are any outages. Nope. Check my mains and they had turned it off, to check for leaks but never turned it back on.

Then some months later, they come back to fix the leaks. Again, no letter to advise of this. I wake up to find the workers ripping the fook out of my front. Again no water. I go off for the day, come back and find my front lawn ripped to fook. The road and foot path covered in mud and shîte. No clean up nothing.

I had to get out the power washer and clean up the mess they left.

The roads and foot paths in town now look like a fooking badly put together jigsaw puzzle.

Fooking useless muppets the lot of them.

I'd swear some of those IW workers haven't started to shave yet. I saw a guy using a kango hammer that was bigger than him.

mad muffin

donegaLroad wrote: »

I'd swear some of those IW workers haven't started to shave yet. I saw a guy using a kango hammer that was bigger than him.

No, these were seasoned fückwits. The kind that know how to use a shovel… to prop themselves up.

PuppyMcPupFace

pablo128 wrote: »

The Jobstown residents paid all their lives, and are still paying today.

They were right to refuse to pay twice though.

You'll be saying they're hardworking taxpayers next!

pablo128

PuppyMcPupFace wrote: »

You'll be saying they're hardworking taxpayers next!

They are tax payers, hard working or not.

Samaris

Just out of curiosity, because the damn song is now looping in my head, but is the title of this thread intended to evoke "Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are bursting" or not?

oppenheimer1

Grab All Association wrote: »

Irish Water recently replaced the pipes here in my village and now I'm without water again today. They pipes the removed were around 40 years old and had never burst in my lifetime. In fact the only water outages were when the electricity went off. 1995 and 2013 (storms that knocked the ESB network off) There's at least 3 leaks now in the 4km section they replaced.

The saying If it's not broke don't fix it comes to mind. Bunch of clowns.

Is this the new normal? Funny how places in Louth and Cork recently made the news and yet IW cock ups dont. Rtould no doubt be calling these 6-8 week old pipes Victorian again.

I've my swimming pool to fill, naked water parties, repetitive flushing of my toilet and I need to sprinlkle the lawn 23hrs a day. Other wasteful activities. ��

How exactly do you know whether or not those pipes were leaving out not? Water could have been pissing out of those ancient pipes into the ground and you'd have been none the wiser.

Secondly, the pipes they've replaced are at the end of their service life. Is it not better they are replaced before expected failure so it can be done in a controlled manner? Now they could have been left in the ground and expensive emergency patch repairs completed on an ad-hoc basis leaving people without supply for two-three days at a time but I'd be pretty ****ing sure you'd be complaining about that too.

Sometimes you cannot win.

Grab All Association

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

How exactly do you know whether or not those pipes were leaving out not? Water could have been pissing out of those ancient pipes into the ground and you'd have been none the wiser.

Secondly, the pipes they've replaced are at the end of their service life. Is it not better they are replaced before expected failure so it can be done in a controlled manner? Now they could have been left in the ground and expensive emergency patch repairs completed on an ad-hoc basis leaving people without supply for two-three days at a time but I'd be pretty ****ing sure you'd be complaining about that too.

Sometimes you cannot win.

The pipes were replaced to supply water to a number of houses I assume as there's plastic blue pipes thrown over the walls/gates of these houses. The water went off again for a 4th time. 12 hours. It looks like the new pipes are not able to take the pressure. Irish water sent a worker around the village knocking on doors to see how many people were without water.

Beta Ray Bill

Rick Shaw wrote: »

The funds were there, but FG in their wisdom decided to spunk over a billion euro on a billing system with refundant metering in place, gyms , laughing yoga, and top end contracts for uncle Dennis.

In hindsight, would have been much better spent repairing and upgrading the infrastructure first with that billion.

Puts the 50m FF spunked away on e-voting machines into perspective.

Very good point!

Water system is a mess

Regarding new pipes leaking, that's a joke.
Given what the OP reports, it's good that they were stopped from continuing further.

Build quality these days just isn't what it used to be.
You can see it in everything:
Cars
Buildings
Electronic equipment
Clothes and Textiles
etc

Everything seems to be cheaply made/installed

There is maximum corner cutting everywhere you look.

I've always said "Buy Cheap, Buy twice"

Wheeliebin30

Rick Shaw wrote: »

I never mentioned anything about jobstown or any other part of the country, your post implied that there was or is a lack of funds to repair the water infrastructure due to people whinging.

I pointed out that the funds were indeed there, and had been shamelessly and irresponsibly spunked away on a pet project by the previous government, instead of actually spending it on upgrading the infrastructure.

You're now off on a tangent about people from jobstown.

Bizzare

You think 1 billion would come even close?

There is 100s of thousands of kilometers of pipes to be replaced.

Samaris

It's true that they -should- have been being gradually updated and replaced throughout the decades from the general taxation which included upkeep of essential services (income tax? I have a raging headcold and can't do nouns sensibly), and they certainly should have been overhauled during the boom years when there was money flying around.

They weren't, and it doesn't matter whether or not they should have been, neither plastic nor lead will hold off on degrading just because humans were dumb about it.

It's been a problem coming for years.