Uisce Éireann has warned of water supply disruptions in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow as the utility carries out critical repair work on a major water main that supplies the Greater Dublin Area.
The pipeline connects the Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant and the Saggart Reservoir and carries 220 million litres of water each day - about one third of the drinking water for the Greater Dublin Area.
The repair works will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Uisce Éireann said that the works are necessary because a section of the pipeline "is likely to burst if not fixed".
Such a burst would result in unplanned and widespread water outages that could take weeks to repair and affect up to 1.7 million people, according to the utility.
Mark O'Duffy, Uisce Éireann’s portfolio manager of infrastructure delivery, described the works as "complex and challenging" due to the size, age and location of the pipeline.
"Extensive planning and preparation has taken place in advance to enable us to carry out these works and minimise impact on water supplies.
"Specialist teams will work as quickly as possible through the night and day to complete the repairs and restore normal water supply," he said.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr O’Duffy said plans are in place to manage supply to Dublin during disruptions, but he called on people to conserve water over the coming days.
"The repair will involve a shutdown of the water main, a dig to a depth of approximately five metres, install of a specialist repair encapsulation collar before we turn the water back on."
"When we are carrying out the repair because the water main will be turned off, our storage reservoirs around the Dublin area will obviously be dropping as demand takes place during the repair period," Mr O’Duffy said.
However, there will be an outage in Naas tomorrow from 9am until 5pm and approximately 500 properties in the Arthurstown area of Kildare that are directly fed from the water main.
"These properties will be out of water from approximately 10pm this evening on Monday till 10pm on Tuesday evening," he said.
Uisce Éireann has advised customers to familiarise themselves with their storage capacity and said it will inform customers as early as possible of the location and duration of any prolonged impacts.
