Buncrana water looks like 'tomato soup' claims councilor
"This is absolutely outrageous. I have never seen anything as ridiculous"
Families in Buncrana have to use water that was going through 100-year-old cast iron and looked like tomato soup.
These were just some of the claims aired at Tuesday's meeting of the Inishowen Municipal District when councillors raised concerns about the quality of the water supply from Irish Water in certain parts of the town.
Cllr Nicholas Crossan described the water company's response to their fears as "totally unacceptable". He claimed some areas in Buncrana still had their water flowing through cast iron pipes over 100 years old.
"If those pipes could be seen out of the ground nobody would put that water into their washing machine never mind drink it. It's very unfair to the people living in St Columba's Avenue, Rockfield Terrace, and parts of Grianan Park and other places around Buncrana are still subjected to this substandard water."
He added Irish Water had claimed it had met EU directives.
"I would like to see somebody who has passed these EU directives drinking that bottle of brown water. It's not fair, it costs money and damages washing machines, kettles, and other domestic appliances. Rather than flushing out these pipes every so often, these pipes should be replaced immediately. It's not fair to the people who have to drink this water on a daily basis," he said.
Cllr Crossan said he wrote to Irish Water about the issue and got a response on September 16.
"The response I got was totally, totally unacceptable," he said.
Cllr Rena Donaghey agreed with her colleague saying the residents had shown her a bottle of the water in question.
"It looked like tomato soup, it was really red. I wrote to Irish Water and they told me they now wanted the people in these houses to check their own plumbing. This is absolutely outrageous. I have never seen anything as ridiculous."
She added council staff would have replaced a lot of the pipes within Buncrana town but for Irish Water to now say to check the plumbing in these homes was a "very poor response".