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Chapter 1: What water crisis is affecting the village of Ballivor?
Live Line with Ciarán Cuddihy on RTÉ Radio 1.
087 484 888 is the WhatsApp number and Eileen Yates is on the line. Eileen, we were talking about school closures and Carlo before the break from this threatening email, in all likelihood a hoax email sent to schools. Your kids are not in school as well today, is that right?
That's right.
But for a very different reason. What's happening?
So, The village where I live, Beliver, it's in Meath. It runs out of water all the time. And yesterday the school ran out just at the end of the day. And Ishka Aaron said that they'd sorted it. But then today, in the middle of the day, it ran out again.
So what happens in that situation? The school calls you?
Yeah, the school put up a post on their kind of contact app to ask parents to come and collect their kids as soon as they could because they were unable to flush the toilets or anything like that.
And how often has this happened?
I've lived in Blythor for most of my life. So for as long as I can remember, there's been issues with the water.
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Chapter 2: How did the water shortage impact local schools?
But it's gotten worse as the village has grown and the issues have worsened. So once the water is gone from the water tower, it's gone. We have no alternative like storage containers. And the water runs out with no warning whatsoever. So when we call Ishka Erin, they report it on their system as unscheduled works. But
In actual fact, they had no idea it was going to run out either because the water tower only has a storage capacity of three hours.
So the school sent you this email today. Their water ran out around lunchtime. What about your water at home?
It's gone. It's gone throughout the village. It's been gone for the last three days.
Sorry, for three days you've had no water?
Yeah, most people in the village have had no water for three days. It comes back in dribbles, but there's never enough water pressure to use the showers, washing machines, dishwashers, anything like that.
So how have you been getting by?
People have been buying bottled water, people who can afford that.
Because I'd wager lots of houses around the country going through a lot of water with record temperatures, but not you guys.
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Chapter 3: What has been the community's response to ongoing water issues?
Yeah, exactly.
I often think, you know, everybody around the country, you might have your water or electricity or different things shut off for works at different times. It's amazing how much more you miss water than electricity even, isn't it? I mean, it's just basic things. Going in and, as you said, flushing the toilet.
Yeah, it's everything. And when it does come back, the water pressure is really low for days at a time. So people have had, like, damage to their appliances. I know people myself, I've had to replace two washing machines, my shower, all the stuff inside the cistern and the toilet because the tank is getting emptied and refilled so much that the sediment isn't settling.
It's coming in through the pipes and it's destroying everything.
So it's coming at financial costs as well.
Massive, yeah.
So you've, how many kids did you say?
I have two kids.
Two kids who are probably enjoying the good weather.
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Chapter 4: How frequently do residents experience water outages?
The water pressure was so low. It reminds me, Eileen, a little bit of that... thing I heard a county council official say once, we can't solve a problem until it exists. You know, a lack of planning. How are they building all these houses? There's not enough water for the houses that are already there.
I've seen their planning permission for the development of 17 houses and Ishka Aaron in their response to the application said that there was no need for infrastructure to be upgraded, which makes no sense. because the 17 houses are directly across from the tower. So that's going to divert water to the rest of the village, even more so. It's just like we're a commuter town, more or less.
We're less than an hour from Dublin and yet still we're forgotten. We've other issues in the village, like people have gotten knocked down before because the zebra crossing isn't fit for purpose. It's just, we're forgotten.
Yeah, and I mean, think of those people as well who are going to buy their bright, shiny new houses and I'm sure spend a pretty penny on them and then they walk in and they turn on the taps and nothing comes out.
Yeah, I'm sure they haven't been told anything about the water issues.
Yeah. Have you, I'm sure you have lobbied local representatives, politicians,
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Chapter 5: What challenges do families face during water shortages?
councillors, what have you, what's the general response that you get?
Some local councillors have emailed Ishka Aaron and they're still waiting for a response but Ishka Aaron in their response to me said that they were working with me, County Council, so I'm not sure how it works.
They said that they've submitted planning permission but they've been saying that since 2021 and then in 2024 they said that the work would be completed by 2027 but we're halfway through 2026 and no works have commenced.
Is there any pattern to when the water goes out, Eileen? That it's, you know, when the weather is particularly good and... No. Reservoir, okay. It's just, it could go at any time.
No, it happened across Christmas and everything.
Oh, at Christmas. No water in the house at Christmas.
Yeah.
I mean, that must have been a real pain.
Yeah, definitely. Especially for people who hadn't, like, you know, weren't able to cook their potatoes or whatever on the hob for boiling things.
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Chapter 6: How does the water supply issue affect vulnerable community members?
What happens?
The lime scale is absolutely destroying them. My warranties won't even cover it now. They ask me what area I'm in and I say, I give them my air code and say, oh yeah, that's very bad for lime scale. No, that's lime scale problem. We're not covered to replace that.
Yeah.
So, you know, effective is costing everybody. And now, even with tomorrow, and the school, in fairness, they've been very good. They've been trying to keep everybody up to date as much as they can. But they can't even tell us if the school is going to be open tomorrow. So I've had to contact my employer to say, listen, I don't think I'll be in.
I'm a care worker, so I have to let them know in advance for them to cover my schedule tomorrow to make sure that the little ladies and men that I would look after tomorrow will still get their calls. So they're not left waiting for somebody to call to them and, you know, get them out of bed, which means I'm down a day's pay.
And I have to I have to make a call within the next hour or two as to whether I can attend work tomorrow, not knowing if the kids are going to school tomorrow.
Yeah. And do you mind me asking how old are the kids or how old is the eldest?
Well, I have one in first year and then I have one in fifth class and one in sixth class. So I have three in a row.
Okay. All right, okay. So Irish cousins or whatever they call them, or Irish twins, isn't it?
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