Water demand spiked

WATER demand in Londonderry spiked 70 per cent above normal levels with 59 million litres being produced in the city just two days after Christmas as increasing temperatures caused a rapid thaw heaping misery on many local families.

Leaky pipes on privately owned property meanwhile resulted in 12 million litres of water being lost down the drain every day in the city when the crisis was at its peak.

In a report to a Special Meeting of Derry City Council’s Regional Services Committee yesterday Northern Ireland Water (NIW) explained how normal production from Carmoney and Caugh Hill reservoirs was normally 35 million litres per day but this leapt to 59 million litres as the thaw began.

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NI water also claim leakages from homes and businesses placed huge stress on the local water supply with leaks at commercial premises resulting in 4 million litres of water being lost per day at the height of the crisis and 12 million litres per day being lost through bursts on all private property.

Londonderry was not as badly affected as other parts of Northern Ireland, however, with local reservoirs remaining fully operational over the Christmas period. But NI Water’s report does acknolwedge that some of its customers in Londonderry did have problems.

“Whilst there were customers in the Derry City Council area who experienced interruptions to supply due to problems with their own internal pipe work (e.g frozen pipes and burst service pipes), the vast majority of customers continued to receive a water supply from the NIW distribution network,” the report stated.

“Some customers were impacted by problems within the NIW distribution system, principally arising from a small number of bursts on the network, which required rezoning until the bursts were repaired.

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“There were also situations where customers on high ground lost supply, or received low pressure, due to reduced storage levels in reservoirs and/or the increased flows in the network,” it added.

In a familiar refrain to that heard repeatedly during the water crisis NI Water said leaks on private domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural premises were a massive drain on local water supplies across NI.

“Although the volume of water associated with the customers’ private supply leakage hasn’t yet been confirmed, it is estimated, in overall terms across Northern Ireland, to be of the order of 70 per cent of the total volume of water lost.

“Applying this to the situation in Derry, this equates to more than 12 million litres of water/day being lost through bursts and leaks on private supply systems, out-with the NIW network. Losses of this magnitude create an incredible strain on the network and on NIW’s ability to maintain supplies to all customers,” the report noted.

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The NIW report also claims that in Londonderry there were a number of large commercial premises with burst pipes and that cumulatively they were losing 4 million litres every day.

This equated to approximately 12 per cent of the normal water demand in the area, impacting on service to customers.

Despite this leakage no rotational cuts to supply were required in the Derry City Council area due to the adequate storage levels in the supplying service reservoirs.

“NIW worked closely with Derry City Council during the incident in relation to distribution of bottled water. Whilst the main location for distribution of bottled water was the Altnagelvin Office at Belt Road, City Council very kindly established other distribution points at Brook Park and at St. Columbs College. In total, some 14,500 litres of bottled water were distributed to customers during the incident,” the report stated.

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Meanwhile in a report on behalf of the Western Trust Donna Allen Assistant Director of Performance & Service Improvement informed the Council it did not have to implement a major emergency plan and set up emergency rest centres although one social care patient had to be provided with alternative accomodation due to a domestic water shortage.

“During this period the WHSCT did not need to activate its Major Emergency Plan, however the Trust’s social services staff kept the situation under review and were prepared to respond in the community in the event of Emergency Rest Centres being established,” reported Ms Allen.

“The Out of Hours Social Services Coordinators reported a busier time than normal but were able to cope with the increase in service demands.

“Whilst most people did not want to leave their homes, in spite of reduction or absence of domestic water supply, one client required access to residential accommodation. This was facilitated by the Trust,” she added.

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