While Cork City Council has announced an end to night-time water restrictions, supplies in parts of Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow will continue to be affected as reservoirs are not being replenished as quickly as hoped.
In a statement today, Cork City Council said areas affected have “reduced significantly" in recent days and normal day and night supplies are now restored.
Repairs will continue to be carried out to pipes over the coming weeks which may result in localised disruption, discolouration or pressure loss, the council warned.
Limerick County Council also lifted night-time restrictions this evening but warned some areas may continue to experience reduced water pressure.
The council said unannounced disruptions to the water supply may still be expected during daylight hours as repair work continues. And it advised customers that the boil notices for Abbeyfeale, Kilmallock and Newcastle West remain in place.
Dublin City Council said yesterday’s reopening of many businesses after the holiday period had brought an expected rise in demand although this wasn’t as “bad as had been feared” and a small quantity of water was put into storage over the day.
In a statement this evening the council said it will be a number of days before the full impact of this rise in demand can be assessed and restrictions will remain in for the rest of this week at least. The situation will be reviewed on Friday morning.
Senior engineer Brian McKeown said a further increase in demand is expected again next Monday when schools go back after the Christmas holidays.
He said the council needs roughly another 100 million litres in storage. “We would have somewhere in the order 800-900 million litres of water in storage at the moment and we need to get that above 1,000 or 1,100 million,” Mr McKeown said.
Restrictions from 7pm to 7am will take place tonight and tomorrow ahead of Friday’s review.
The council asked members of the public to continue to report broken water mains and to conserve water as much as possible. Details of the restrictions are on the council’s website, dublincity.ie.
Wicklow County Council offered similar advice, saying “the problem is often caused by water freezing solid in the service pipe which connects a property to the council’s supply mains”. In such cases the difficulty rests with the householder, who may have little option but to await a thaw.
It said areas within and surrounding Blessington, Greystones, Killincarrig, Delgany, Kilcoole, Kilpeddar, Kilquade, Enniskerry and Bray will experience a loss of supply or reduced pressure from 7pm until 8am.
Further restrictions may also apply to other areas where bursts occur the council warned.
Kildare County Council said although it is making good progress in repairing burst mains restrictions will remain in place from 7pm each night until 8am until further notice.
In Galway, water has been restored to most households in the city, but a small number still appeared to have difficulties. Water continued to be deployed at the bottle bank site on the Western Distributor Road in Knocknacarra, and on the east side, close to Ballybane Church.
Waterford City Council said there were no disruptions to water supplies in the city yesterday. However, the council said there continued to be extra demand due to the recent adverse weather conditions.
Clare County Council said the situation is improving and supply is near normal in most parts of the county but it is asking customers to continue to conserve water use.
In Northern Ireland, just 160 homes were without water yesterday – down from 1,000 homes on Sunday. Northern Ireland Water said today it had re-connected all the homes that had lost water during the crisis.
It appealed to householders to check pipes on their property and to check all vacant buildings. It said if the problem is on a householder’s property they should call a plumber. If a number of neighbours were cut off it was likely to be a burst main.
Meanwhile, this week’s greyhound racing at Shelbourne Park in Dublin has also been cancelled due to water damage.