Residents vent their fury as water outage misery continues

- School sends students home as major water outage

- Local businesses also affected by burst main

- Crews still working on repairs

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Residents in Trim have been venting their fury at the ongoing water outage affecting large parts of the heritage town this evening.

Irish Water was dealing with TWO separate water main breaches during the course of the day.

The first cause of disruption was the to Mill Street, Whitehall, Crowpark, Fostersholding, Townparks North, Lackanash, Blackfriary, Newtown, Trim and surrounding areas.

Works at that site now have an estimated completion time of 11pm tonight (7th October.)

Irish Water was advising customers to wait 2-3 hours after the estimated restoration time for supply to fully return.

In a second incident supply was lost at Whitehall, Crowpark, Fostersholding, Townparks, Lackanash, Blackfriary, Newtown, Manorland, Maudlin, St Johns, Iffernock, Stonehall, Scurlockstown, Moat, Rathmolyon, Cherryvalley, Glebe, Kilmore with Irish Water claiming that situation was resolved at 2.30pm

Irish Water has confirmed that crews remain on-site of the burst water main that is causing havoc for householders and businesses in Trim.

This was the water coming from Christine McKeown's tap. Christine who lives on the Kells Road said: "It looks rotten but it has cleared up an awful lot since then but when you pour a glass of water it still has a slight tinge of brown so I won’t be using it anytime soon. I bought bottles and bottles of water today to keep us going."

Residents and businesses took to social media to vent their frustration. Muse Hairdressing in Knightsbrook had to close for the day because of the outage.

"Unfortunately we will not be open today due to another water outage!!! We will be contacting all of todays clients to reschedule to the next few days. I will transfer the phone to my mobile so if you need to contact the salon for future appointments. Sorry for the inconvenience Julia, Louise, Corrinne, Chloe and Karina"

A resident wrote: "Was home with a sick baby today, couldn't even get out to buy bottled water, while another queries why water tankers were not deployed.

"Fingal co council send out water tankers as soon as there is a major outage, why not here?"

At least three local schools have had to close in the town this morning as a burst water main has left the town without water.

Scoil Mhuire secondary school, Boyne Community School and St Mary's Primary School have all sent pupils home.

The outage also affected homes and businesses across Trim and also in Rathmolyon.

Cllr Noel French said that Trim suffers a lot of outages because of old water mains that need to be replaced. “It needs major investment,” he said.

Michael Cunniffe, Irish Water, said, “The repairs are being conducted as quickly and efficiently as possible to minimise disruption to the area and restore water for all customers. We understand the inconvenience unplanned outages can have on customers and we appreciate your patience as we work to return the water supply to homes and businesses as quickly as possible.”

Sinn Fein TD for Meath West Johnny guirke has called on Irish Water to invest major funding to water infrastructure as the short term fix doesn’t sort the long term problem.

"Every week we see more and more tweets from Irish Water about disruptions to areas like Enfield, Ballivor, Longwood, Trim due to burst water mains.

"Though they fix it short term, major investment would sort out the long term problem.

"In many posts from the company, the line thanking them for their patience has worn thin now, and people are enraged at this week in week out.

"Last night Enfield water went at 10:30pm, and this morning Trim had a major water outage that won’t be sorted until tomorrow at the earliest.

"This is just not acceptable anymore; Businesses are closing today on one of the busiest days of the week for them. Schools are closed now meaning parents that went to work now must come home for their kids.

"These outages will continue unless we see huge investment into water treatment plants, local people deserve better than continued disruption to their service.

How have you been affected by the outage, let us know? Email: ann.casey@meathchronicle.ie