Securing the water supply across County Waterford remains a top priority for Uisce Éireann as the intensive campaign continues to drive down leakage and improve the water supply to homes and businesses.

Water services crews will be arriving in Dungarvan in the coming weeks to get to work replacing over 1km of old and deteriorating water mains in the Wolfetone Road area which is prone to bursts and leakage.

The work is part of the water company’s backyard services programme to reduce the number of bursts and outages impacting customers on a shared water connection support to replace old and leaking mains with new, hard-wearing pipes in the public domain.

Over 260 properties, all currently connected by a vast network of ageing backyard services, will be upgraded with new water service connections to a newly installed watermain, resolving low pressure and leakage issues for these residents.

This is one of the largest backyard services projects ever undertaken in the Southeast, providing these homes with a significantly improved water supply for generations to come.

Backyard services are found in older areas, often installed to the rear of a customer’s property and typically made of cast iron or lead. Due to the age and deteriorating condition of the pipework, they are often a significant source of leakage and supply disruption for customers. Backyard services are usually shared, running through a number of neighbouring properties making it difficult to detect and repair leaks. Where properties share a connection, leaks and bursts affect all connected properties, resulting in low pressure and/or outages.

Uisce Éireann engineer and Programme Manager, Dave Murphy, explained the importance of upgrading these old backyard and shared service connections:

“Old backyard service connections are a huge source of leakage and continue to impact communities right across Ireland, causing low pressure and supply disruption. Replacing these old water mains and service connections in poor condition will eliminate existing leaks and significantly reduce the amount of clean drinking water lost into the ground. We would like to thank the local community for facilitating this significant project and helping us to provide a more secure and reliable water supply for generations to come.”

The works will be carried out on behalf of Uisce Éireann by Shareridge Civil Engineering and in partnership with Waterford City and County Council. Areas of works will be limited to short sections to minimise impact on customers..

The project forms part of Uisce Eireann’s National Leakage Reduction Programme and will help the company achieve its 2030 goal of a national leakage rate of 25% -  in 2018 the leakage rate stood at 46%.

Since 2018, Uisce Éireann has invested more than €500 million to upgrade the underground water network across the country through the delivery of the national Leakage Reduction Programme and is investing a further €250 million every year up to the end of 2030.