Work to begin on new Longwood reservoir
Work is to begin on the new reservoir in Longwood which should be operational by 2023.
The news will come as a relief to local residents who have had to endure regular water outages in recent years.
The news was welcomed by Deputy Johnny Guirke who said he had raised the issue of water problems in Longwood, Ballivor and Enfield in the Dail chamber, asking for funding to be released so locals can have the use of water without the fear of it cutting off all the time.
“I am delighted to hear that the funding for the new Longwood reservoir has been signed off by all parties and now it’s time to schedule the work for the reservoir in a timely manner without too much disruption on locals.
“The delay shouldn’t have gone on this long for the people in Longwood and I’m happy that they will finally have a good outcome with relation to water.”
Deputy Guirke said it was time to keep the pressure on Government as the people of Ballivor and Enfield still haven’t heard if funding will be released for their areas yet.
“Meath County Council have had everything in place for all three areas, the planning was approved and a contractor was picked with the funding all that was missing from Irish Water.
“I will continue to fight for funding for the Ballivor and Enfield reservoirs from officials and it is hoped that this can happen sooner rather than later,” he said.
A spokesperson for Irish Water said the company's Capital Investment Plan contains a number of national programmes including the treated water storage programme.
“Irish Water has developed a national list of sites where there is no treated water storage and sites where additional storage is required. There are a significant number of projects on the list including the requirement for storage at Enfield, Ballivor, and Longwood.
“Storage at Longwood has been prioritised through the treated water storage programme and is currently at preliminary stage. “Storage solutions for Enfield and Ballivor will be reviewed at the next prioritisation cycle,” she said.