Ennis in Co Clare is finally to get a clean water supply but it will have to wait another two years for a new water treatment plant to be completed.
Clare County Council has signed an €8.3m contract for a new water treatment plant for the town to be constructed at its reservoirs at Drumcliffe.
However, it is not expected to be completed until February 2009.
The completion of the new plant will put an end to a number of intermittent boil notices, first introduced in May 2005, after the town’s water supply was contaminated with cryptosporidium.
A cautionary boil notices still exists for the town, warning families with young babies, the elderly, or those whose immune systems are vulnerable, to boil or buy their water.
The new treatment plant will have the capacity to produce between 15,000 and 18,000 cubic metres of treated water.
This will provide for the town’s 27,000 residents, which is expected to grow to 38,000 by 2020.
The Mayor of Clare, Cllr Patricia McCarthy, said the signing of the new contract is a significant boost to the town’s infrastructural needs.
She said it will assist the town in attracting focused investment, as well as bringing to an end the problems people have been having trying to get a clean water supply.
