Irish Water has warned that 46 water supplies are currently at risk due to Storm Eunice.
It is working to minimise the risk of supply interruptions to customers and to restart the production of water at treatment plants impacted by weather conditions.
Due to heavy rainfall and the thousands of power outages, many plants are continuing to run offline, and now workers must resolve the issue before supply runs out.
The severity of conditions in the south of the country means that those living in Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Wexford are the worst affected.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: “While there has been no impact on the majority of our plants the severe weather may impact on supplies in a number of locations due to heavy rainfall and high winds causing power outages at water treatment plants and pumping stations.
“To date the most impacted areas are in the South-West and South-East, particularly in counties Cork, Kerry, Waterford and Wexford where a number of supplies are at risk due to storage levels locally running low with treatment plants offline.”
They confirmed that they are also liaising closely with the ESB to prioritise the restoration of power to plants affected by electricity outages.
Burst water mains are also being tended to across those counties, and so this may also cause a disruption to supplies throughout the day.
In most cases, water is still in supply with Irish Water aiming to restore production before any interruptions are experienced by customers.
Tom Cuddy, Irish Water’s head of Operations, said: “Irish Water has implemented its emergency response processes in advance of Storm Eunice and is working closely with the National Emergency Coordination Committee, Local Authorities and other partners to coordinate the national response and to ensure that the risk to service interruption as a result of the storm is minimised.
“We would like to assure our customers that we will be working as a matter of priority to restore any supplies should they be impacted by the storm as quickly as possible, once it is safe to do so.
“The Irish Water contact centre is available 24/7 on 1800 278 278 to support our customers during this time. Customers are urged to report loss of service or visible leaks to assist Irish Water to identify bursts.”
