A chara, – In his article on water supply for the Dublin region (“Dublin is running out of water – Can the Shannon help?”, Housing and Planning, March 9th), Kevin O’Sullivan mentions that demand for water, in the past year, “has increased by the equivalent of 120,000 homes to record levels” and this could result is supply issues for non-domestic users”.
According to the Central Statistics Office, total new dwellings completed in 2023 were 32,695. Uisce Éireann, however, “issued 4,597 connection offers associated with 42,970 housing units”. I find it difficult to reconcile these figures, which I assume should be roughly comparable, yet show a 30 per cent differential.
In any event, the equivalent increase is non-domestic use in 2023 was somewhere between 3.7 times and 2.8 times the increase in domestic use. It should also be noted that leakage from the system is 33 per cent, the lowest level in a number of years with the aim of reducing this to 20 per cent by 2030.
Uisce Éireann is warning of challenges ahead. The Water Forum has warned the Government that “a lot houses and a lot more water are needed”.
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So where is this extra water going? It would be interesting to learn who are the big commercial users of water that are driving this significant increase in usage. In particular I would be interested to find out the amount of water used by data centres as it is a vital input used in their cooling systems.
We are well aware of the stress that data centres are putting on the electricity grid. In 2021 the CSO noted that these centres were using almost 20 cent of the country’s metered electricity, which was equivalent to the amount used by every urban household in Ireland combined. If this is also the case for water supply, then it is time for a debate.
Data centres are a key part of our electronic infrastructure and are a vital necessity to modern living. The tech sector is a major contributor to the Irish economy in terms of well-paid jobs and is responsible for a significant portion of our corporation tax.
One factor that contributes to our attractiveness for data centres is our cool, temperate climate which reduces the cooling costs. This reduces their operating costs and boosts profitability. They also benefit from our existing tech infrastructure and low rate of corporation tax.
The question becomes one of a trade-off between the economic benefits of locating data centres in Ireland and a secure our electricity and water supply for our citizens. Time for a national debate? – Is mise,
DERMOT HARDY,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Kevin O’Sullivan’s excellent article is part of an increasing national coverage of Uisce Éireann’s desire to draw water from the Shannon to satisfy Dublin’s needs. However, most of this coverage seems to ignore a major part of the problem (the proverbial elephant in the room that no one wants to see). Unless charges are introduced for households that use an excessive amount of fresh water, and we use that money to fix Dublin’s pipework, the decades-old objective of draining the Shannon will be achieved in jig time. – Yours, etc,
DAVID EVANS,
Dublin 3.