Cork County Council has stated that it intends to carry out work on the Reenascreena water supply network in an attempt to avoid supply outages like the one that happened in July of this year. Proposed work includes:

• Increasing the storage capacity of Reenascreena Reservoir.
• Improving the water supply and pressure at the Castleventry pumping station by laying additional water mains.
• Carrying out improvements to the distribution network

Proposals are being finalised and the Council hope to have a part 8 planning application for a larger reservoir under way before Christmas, with a view to work commencing in late spring of 2006.

Back in September Noell Fitzpatrick and I addressed the policy meeting of Cork County Council West to highlight residents' concerns about the inconsistent nature of our water supply. In a letter forwarded by e-mail on 25th October 2005 Senior Engineer Niall O'Mahony furnished Reeanascreena Community Action Group with an outline of the report he gave to that meeting after we were asked to leave.

The report specifically addresses the five day water outage that occurred in Reenascreena in July, and then goes on to outline the long-term solution to Reenascreena's water problems, and what the council propose to do in the short term to improve the situation.

The report's contents are summarised below:

The problem in July:

• In early July the supply situation for the entire Clonakilty network was at a critical stage dur to dry weather and heavy water usage.
• On the night of 12th July screens at the intake works at Jones Bridge were blocked resulting in the loss of several hours supply to the network.
• Under heavy demand the reservoir serving the rural area almost ran dry, and supply from the reservoir was throttled back to allow water levels to recover.
• Demand stayed high, pressure fell, and water failed to reach the higher areas of the network.
• Reenascreena is one of the highest areas, and was the first to suffer water shortages. According to the report the situation persisted for several days: “despite our appeals to the public to conserve water and tankering water to the reservoir”.
• Because of high elevation the Reenascreena Group Scheme has a history of water shortages, but these have become less frequent in recent years due to improvements brought about by the Western Distribution Scheme and improvements to the pumps at Jones Bridge.
• Sustained increase in water demand has effectively negated the impact of these improvements.

Looking to the future -- the long term solution

The long-term solution for Reenascreena is construction of the Dunmanway Regional Water Supply Scheme. That scheme will extract approximately 1 million gallons of water per day from Curraghalickey Lake.

• Water will be treated at a new Treatment Plant at Lisbealad and will supply new reservoirs to serve both Dunmanway and the western part of the Clonakilty Regional Water Supply Scheme, including Reenascreena.
• The scheme has been planned for over 20 years but it has now been included in the Water Services Investment Program with €12 million allocated to the scheme.
  
• The Preliminary Report is currently under review and the council hope to go to contract document stage in 2006.

Improvements in the short term

In the short term the council propose to carry out work on the Reenascreena network to improve the supply. This work includes:

• Increasing the storage capacity of Reenascreena reservoir.
• Improving the water supply and pressure at the Castleventry pumping station by laying additional water mains.
• Carrying out improvements to the distribution network.

Niall O'Mahony indicates in the report that the Water Services division is currently in discussion with consulting engineers to finalise these short-term proposals. He also states that the increase in storage capacity may require a larger site and a part 8 planning application – processeses that he hopes to have under way before Christmas with a view to work beginning by late spring of 2006. Mr O'Mahony ends his report by emphasising that despite these improvements it is likely that the situation of the entire network will remain critical until the Dunmanway scheme becomes operational.