Over 70 households in Waterford put on boil water notice from Friday this week
A boil water notice has been put in place in the Portlaw estate from Friday this week
Seventy-four households in Portlaw have been put under a boil water notice starting this Friday, August 14, after years of ongoing disputes between residents, the water provider and the estate developer.
Residents of the Woodlands Estate, Portlaw were told just under two weeks ago their current water provider, Campion, would withdraw service by Friday, August 14 after water fee negotiations failed between the developer and the resident's committee.
Residents were told the yearly water fee, which started at around €50 when the homes were first built in the early 2000s, was going to be raised from €250 to €425, a 70% increase in just one year.
Local Sinn Féin Councillor Catherine Burke has been working on getting the estate connected to the public water supply for the past eight years.
She told the News and Star: "It should have been handed over to the council in 2013 and it wasn't."
The estate was brought into Waterford City and County Council ownership in 2013, but the water supply remained private as the well is on the developer's land and the infrastructure wasn't suitable for a public connection at the time.
Cllr Burke says this has been the source of ongoing problems for residents of the estate, the developer and the water maintenance company for the last twenty or so years.
There has been an effort in recent days by the developer to engage a new contractor to look after the water supply for the estate, which local Independent Councillor Declan Clune told the News and Star would depend on the residents approval.
Meaning the wait for a new water maintenance operator will depend on how long residents take to review the proposals and agree on a solution, adding that "it's coming to crunch time now with the boil water notice coming in on Friday."
The residents of the Woodlands Estate have been in ongoing fee negotiations with the developer for some time now, with some residents declining to pay the water supply fee in protest.
Residents largely feel that the fee increase is too high and that it covers more than the maintenance of the water system and would operate as a sink fund instead, according to Cllr Burke.
"They're stuck between loggerheads, the residents are after offering €350 a year and the developer is saying no, that €425 is the figure,” she told the News and Star.
Uisce Éireann confirmed a timeline for the connection of the Woodlands Estate to the public water supply in July this year.
The commitment made by Uisce Éireann earlier this summer was to assign a project manager to the transfer by the end of this year and to have the public connection completed by Q3 of 2027, an 18-month timeframe.
A timeline Cllr Burke called "a light at the end of the tunnel for residents."
The current dispute between the resident's association and the developer concerns the time between now and then, assuming Uisce Éireann meet their timeline.
Cllr Clune told the News and Star he wasn't hopeful that the public connection would be completed in that timeline, but that he would be more than happy if it were to go as planned, saying, "I wouldn't hold my breath on the 18 months, having dealt with Irish Water over the last number of years. What they say and what they do, and it's probably with the best of intentions, they're two different things."
Cllr Burke said she was hopeful that Uisce Éireann would complete the project in line with their proposed timeline, saying "I'm hopeful and I've written to Uisce Éireann and asked them to expedite it".
"I've put motions to the council, asking for the council to ask Uisce Éireann to expedite the process to see if it can be done sooner because that's the solution to this problem. And the developer agrees, and the residents agree that it's the solution to the problem," she said.
Cllr Burke reiterated that she is "urging the developer and the residents committee and the wider residents to come to an agreement on the payment" while she continues to push Uisce Éireann for the public supply.
Uisce Éireann confirmed to the News and Star that they intend to have the detailed design and delivery programme finalised later this year after their positive assessment of the estate.
In the meantime, however, they stated that the existing operators have responsibility of the water supply until Uisce Éireann can implement the resolution.
The works expected to be completed next year, will be delivered by Uisce Éireann and funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH).
The connection to the public water supply will face a number of barriers before it can be completed, according to Cllr Clune.
For example, he said, the hundreds of estates across the country in a similar situation awaiting a connection to Uisce Éireann's water system who will be ahead of the Woodlands Estate in the queue to get works completed.
He also flagged funding as potential issue for the project, with the worry being that by the time Woodlands Estate reaches the front of the queue, the funding will have dried up.
Uisce Éireann confirmed to the News and Star that there are currently over 500 developer provided infrastructure (DPI) water and wastewater treatment plants requiring infrastructure upgrades across the country, including estates like the Woodlands, and that an assessment process has commenced to gather information on each of the projects.
