Locals in Clifden, Co Galway are concerned about the lack of progress in finding the source of a major leak in the town.
Hundreds of householders and businesses are facing a fourth day without running water.
Engineering crews have been trying to locate the leak behind the outage on the Clifden Regional Supply Scheme which happened at around 7am on Monday morning. Tankers have been put in place at various locations, but the water must be boiled before use.
Uisce Éireann say the issue is not storm related, and have now put a Plan B into effect which involves running a pipe - measuring between 400m and 500m - overground to bypass the existing underground network.
It is hoped the back-up plan will be up and running later this evening.
Councillor Eileen Mannion welcomed the temporary solution to restore water, but called on Uisce Eireann to upgrade the network as a matter of urgency.
"Restoring water to the town is a major priority. We're lucky this is happening in January and not July and August when the tourist population explodes in Clifden," she said.
She added: "It would be chaotic and have a detrimental impact on the livelihoods of local business people. We really need a major overhaul of the old pipe network going forward."
Declan Mannion is a publican in the town and says the last few days have caused untold hardship.
"January is a challenging month for Clifden at the best of times. But in the last few days we've had ice and freezing temperatures, red alert warnings, two storms in a row and now we've no water for days," he said.
He added: "This is a terrible mess, and we need the source of that leak located urgently.
"My pub is closed, my staff are out of work along with many more in the town. It's unacceptable."
Michael Gibbons, a local archaeologist living in the centre of town, says he has never seen an outage of this nature in Clifden before.
"It's very hard for the likes of elderly people and families with young children. Schools are closed because of this water outage," he said.
"We really need the situation resolved. That said crews are working around the clock to find the leak and fix it. And there are multiple water supplies at locations around Clifden."
