Major water works planned in Letterkenny to stop repeated outages

Residents in some town lands near Letterkenny who have been hit by repeated water issues have been given some hope.

Uisce Eireann has undertaken a plan to remedy the situation for homeowners in the Bomany, Newmills, Tullgay and Conwal areas with works planned for 2024.

Earlier this year, locals fumed when they were told by officials that they would need to invest in private water storage and pumping stations themselves to fix the issues.

Water problems have hit the area repeatedly over the last 17 years. At a meeting of the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District in May, Councillor Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly said there were 84 outages since last September.

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Uisce Eireann, formerly Irish Water, has now said that it has undertaken a ‘plan to improve service capacity’.

“This process will take some time, so will not be a quick fix, but it will deliver a vastly improved water service to customers,” Uisce Eireann said.

“Work on construction of an investigative hydraulic model for Letterkenny has now concluded and the results are being actively assessed. These results will inform both the extents of the problem and will also inform the optimum long-term solution.”

They indicated that construction could get underway in 2024, but this is dependent on the scope of the works.

Councillor Kelly said he was delighted to receive the news that the long-awaited works were advancing.

“This is fantastic and very welcomed news,” he told Donegal Live.

“Uisce Eireann had previously told me that these works were four or five years away from starting but I'm glad for the residents in these areas that they now hope to start the works in 2024.

“The residents in these areas have been suffering for a number of years but I want to thank them for there support and patience and thankfully there is now some light at the end of the tunnel.”