AS WATER RESTRICTIONS REMAIN IN PLACE People Before Profit says
- FAILURE TO INVEST IN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE HAS SENT COMMUNITIES BACK TO THE DARK AGES
- PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT CALLS FOR EMERGENCY PROGRAMME TO UPGRADE WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
In a statement, the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has said that systematic failure on the part of the government to invest in upgrading the water infrastructure has left many people without water since Christams. Almost three weeks after the thaw there are still restrictions on water use throughout the country.
PBPA said the government have been fully aware of the need to urgently replace water mains across the country and to increase reservoir capacity but had simply failed to provide the resources to do this.
Dublin City Councillor Joan Collins, who will be a People Before Candidate in the General Election, said:
“The massive hardship now being experienced by thousands of people– particularly families with children and the elderly – is not the unfortunate result of extreme weather conditions; it is the result of systemic government failure.
The claim that the current water cut offs are purely the result of freezing weather conditions is just dishonest. Those dealing with the water system have long flagged the perilous state of our infrastructure and the need to invest in remedial action urgently. Even before the cold snap in December, it was well known that there was massive leakage from water mains because the pipes were old and there was a severe shortage of reservoir capacity.
Over 800 km of underground water pipes, in the six local authorities covered by the Watermains Rehabilitation Project are over 80 years old, resulting in over 30% of treated water being lost. The government have continuously ignored calls to deal with this problem or paid lip service, while refusing to stump up the resources. Only 60 km were replaced in Dublin
City in 2008-2009, but not one kilometre was replaced the last cold snap in January 2010. A further 55km is due to be replaced by the end of 2011 in the other five local authority areas covered by the Watermains Rehabilitation Project.
There are thousands of construction workers on the dole who could be employed by the government in a special emergency programme to replace all the water pipes nationally so the citizens of this state do not find themselves thrown back to the dark ages every time we have a freeze.
The suffering being experienced by ordinary people across the city, who now lack the most basic resource – water – is yet another reason to finally drive this government out of office.”