Orange water: ‘We are at our wits’ end with it. It is an urgent health risk’

On one occasion the water in John Ó Ríordáin’s home was so orange it resembled a soft drink. The father of two from Ballyvolane in Cork city first started noticing discolouration in his water supply in 2022.

Despite logging several complaints, the problem persists. The system is periodically flushed out but the discoloured water will return a few days later. It is very frustrating.

He says affected householders are spending about €1,000 a year on bottled water. “I see them in Lidl coming out with slabs of bottled water.”

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He decided to buy water filters for his home. “But we don’t have filters on our appliances, and I am a bit worried that they are going to get destroyed. You could be doing a wash and would look in to the machine and the water is orange.”

The root of the problem seems to be old pipework. “In some parts of the city the last people to change the pipes were the British. They are that old. It needs substantial work,” he says.

Roy O’Driscoll, from Gurranabraher in the city, has lost faith in ever having a reliable water supply to his home again. “My trust in the water supply is gone. We have two young kids – a three-year-old and a four month old. It is difficult, especially with the baby now, sterilising bottles and having to use bottled water for it.

“A couple of weeks ago the baby had an explosion of a nappy and we went to run a bath. But the water was brown.

“In the last couple of months our older son has really dry skin. The only thing we think of is that it is the water [causing it].”

Uisce Eireann says it is undertaking “all possible measures” to address the issue, but O’Driscoll says the problem has persisted since 2022. “We have empty bottles by our sink in the kitchen. I test the water before I even put the machines on. I fill up the bottles from the kitchen sink just to have a look to see if it’s clear.

“The biggest bill in our house now is bottled water. We are spending about €120 a month on it.”

He continues to ring Uisce Éireann to lodge complaints. However, he says nothing has changed. “I am getting the same response I got when I first started complaining a year and a half ago.”

He is also concerned about the possible health implications for his family. “I just don’t trust the water. My older son never goes to the tap for water. He doesn’t have the concept that water you can drink can come out of a tap. We are at our wits’ end with it. It is an urgent health risk.”

Flushing out the system is only a temporary solution, he says.

Mains rehabilitation works are under way, with an investment of about half a billion euro required, across several decades

—  Uisce Éireann

Brian O’Leary, Uisce Éireann’s regional operations manager for the southwest, says public health remains “our top priority and we want to reiterate that water is safe to drink once it is running clear. We continue to advise customers not to drink discoloured water and to contact us directly with any reports of discolouration”.

Uisce Éireann says it has increased sampling, including testing at customers’ taps, on the network and operational sampling at the water treatment plant. Accelerated network improvements are under way and further works are planned.

Specialists are also monitoring the performance of the Lee Road Water Treatment plant and investigating what can be done to minimise any further sediment dislodgement from pipes.

Mains rehabilitation works are under way, with an investment of about half a billion euro required, across several decades, to replace the entire cast iron mains network, it says.

Nationally, the annual report of the Environment Protection Agency on drinking water in Ireland published earlier this week indicated more than half a million people are now served by “at risk” public water supplies.

The Cork City (Lee Road) water supply did not feature in that report. It was removed from the EPA’s remedial action list in 2022. That list includes supplies classified as the most serious threat to public health, requiring immediate corrective action by Uisce Éireann.