Limerick County Council has been granted a High Court injunction to remove water protesters from council headquarters.
Five protesters began a sit-in at County Hall in Dooradoyle, Limerick on Monday afternoon in an effort to force the local authority to restore the water supply from Bleach Lough to Pallaskenry and Kildimo in Co Limerick.
The protesters, members of the Bleach Lough Retention Group, are opposed to having their water linked up with a supply from the river Deel, which they claim is one of the most polluted rivers in the country.
They also claim that the council, which connected the two systems last week, breached an undertaking given in the High Court that they would not link the two systems before the outcome of a judicial review.
"We're staging this sit-in because the council has broken the agreement made in the High Court when it undertook not to connect us until after a judicial review," said water campaigner Donal O'Brien. "We're determined to stay put, even if they serve injunctions on us."
The council has strongly denied allegations made by the protesters and insists that water taken from the river Deel is tested according to the best international standards.
The council yesterday said that there was never any agreed undertaking not to proceed with the laying of the pipelines and the interconnection. "However, the council, in the context of court proceedings, had made certain suggestions or offers to the group's solicitors but these were rejected by the group.
"Therefore the council proceeded with its works and the interconnection," it said in a statement.
A council spokesman said if the campaigners' demands were implemented, it would mean many residents in Co Limerick would be denied access to a new supply connected last week.
An interconnection completed on April 13th, after six years of intermittent "boil" and "unfit" notices, has ensured access for residents in Kilcornan and Ballyshonick to clean and potable water, the council spokesman said.
Since 2001 residents in these areas have been forced to boil water for brushing teeth and drinking due to ongoing concerns about water quality there.
The spokesman added that the protest was an effort to force the council to give an undertaking to decommission the successful interconnection of the Pallaskenry, Kildimo and Askeaton Water Supply Schemes made by the council on April 13th.
"To accede to the protesters demands' would result in many residents in the Ballyshonick and Kilcornan areas being denied access to the new supply," he added.
Some 400 houses are served by the interconnection from Ballyshonick to Pallaskenry but another 400 houses in Kildimo are still awaiting connection, something which the council insists will happen.