Irish Water, working in partnership with Westmeath County Council, is investing in the water network in Athlone to reduce leakage, improve water quality and provide a more reliable service for customers. 

The water company distributes 1.7 billion litres of water every day but almost half of the clean water is lost through leaks. Irish Water’s investment in Athlone is part of a water conservation and network improvement initiative to invest €500m to upgrade Ireland’s water infrastructure from 2017 to 2021.

This work is being carried out through the implementation of a targeted programme of works called the Leakage Reduction Programme. This is part of an overall investment of €5.5 billion to improve drinking water quality and wastewater infrastructure up to 2021.

Part of the work that Irish Water is carrying out in Athlone is to reduce leakage in the network, provide a more reliable water supply for customers, improve water quality and improve supply connections by replacing shared backyard services and lead connections.

The site investigations in the area to establish the existing services in place will be carried out by GMC on behalf of Irish Water.

The overall aim of the Leakage Reduction Programme is to reduce leakage on a national scale and to manage the availability, sustainability and reliability of water supply for customers now and into the future.

Renewing old, damaged pipes and repairing leaks on the public network will reduce burst frequency and supply interruptions resulting in improved water network performance. The target is to save approximately 180 million litres of water per day.

Derek Deignan, Irish Water’s Networks Programme Regional Lead, explained:

“Irish Water is investing in Athlone’s drinking water network to reduce leakage and provide a more reliable service for our customers.”

The works will involve number of measures including removing shared backyard services and installing single connections from properties to more reliable water mains.

This project is part of Irish Water’s national Leakage Reduction Programme which represents an investment of €500 million over the next four years to reduce leakage and remove old lead pipes from the public water network.