Uniting to Ensure a Better Water Service for South Meath

Families, small businesses, GP surgeries and nursing homes in South Meath have been subjected to a very poor water service for a number of years. This has placed undue hardship on residents, particularly those with children and vulnerable family members in terms of having access to clean drinking water, maintaining personal hygiene and carrying out domestic tasks. Small businesses have also been put under adverse pressure and have lost money, have had to cut staffing hours and have lost custom. GP surgeries, nursing homes and other services that require a steady supply of water to maintain standards of hygiene and infection control have also been challenged.

As a result, a group of local people have been driven to submit an official complaint against Uisce Eireann to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU). This complaint seeks Uisce Eireann to make the following changes to their policies and practices in order to improve our water supply.

• Reduce the frequency and duration of water outages
  Uisce Eireann's priority should be to keep the water supply flowing to the maximum extent possible so that interruption to our supply is kept to a minimum. This can be achieved by conducting works at night, utilising innovative engineering pipework techniques, opening existing boreholes, connecting to adjacent water networks and utilising additional water storage tanks when works are scheduled. 
• Greater Consultation with Impacted Communities
  Uisce Eireann should be required to engage with impacted communities before, during and after carrying out major pipe works. This is important so that people are well informed, can voice their concerns and have their specific needs addressed.
• Timely Notifications
  Uisce Eireann should give communities ample notice of scheduled outages. The expectation is that communities will be notified days in advance of any scheduled cutoff. In relation to unscheduled outages Uisce Eireann should immediately notify communities to allow them to conserve water and plan usage.
• Better Management of Water Works
  Uisce Eireann should ensure that their supervision and inspection system of contractors carrying out works on their behalf is of a high standard and accountability. This will ensure that outages are minimised and that works carried out are quality assured.
• Emergency Response
  Uisce Eireann should ensure that emergency response teams are locally available so that they can react speedily to unscheduled outages.

This petition is in support of the official complaint against Uisce Eireann that some local residents and small businesses in South Meath are in the process of  submitting to the CRU. The CRU needs to direct Uisce Eireann to provide a better water supply to South Meath to the same standard that applies in other locations. People are entitled to a clean, dependable water supply and this is not the case at the moment in South Meath.  Uisce Eireann has demonstrated that it is currently incapable of delivering this basic service and at this point Uisce Eireann should be held accountable. Positive action is now required.  

**NO FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS PLEASE**