THE INSTALLATION of water meters will commence in the four towns – Wexford, Enniscorthy, New Ross and Gorey – of Co. Wexford in August and Wexford will be one of the first counties to have this work done, Council official, Eddie Taaffe, informed members at last Monday’s monthly meeting of Wexford County Council held in the Council Chamber at Carricklawn, Wexford.
He said that work on surveying for domestic water metering was ongoing, with over 23,000 surveys, or approximately 50%, having been completed.
“The metering programme, which is now underway had a target of the installation of 27,000 meters countrywide per month with the installation of meters taking place very early throughout Co. Wexford,” stated the Director of Services.
He confirmed that there are approximately 46,000 domestic connections in Co. Wexford, in addition to 8,000 non-domestic connections.
He said Wexford was a pilot county along with Fingal and Kerry and the customers would be given prior notification in advanced on metering installation and that all customer contact would be via the Irish Water Call Centre.
Mr. Taaffe gave a detailed presentation on Irish Water to members and answered their queries.
Wexford County Council’s Water and Waste Water Services’ is serving a countywide population in excess of 104,000.
The major public water supply schemes in the county, in addition to serving the county’s population, supplied over 40 million cubic meters of water per day through 1800 kilometres of public water mains, and nine major supply schemes meet 92% of the county demand.
Mr. Taaffe added that the water supply is further supplemented through a number of small schemes countrywide.
There are 83 employees working on the operational services in both water and waste water services, inclusive of administrative staff and the number of engineers employed in this area.
It was noted that the water service budget for 2013 exceeded €18.1 million which is approximately 19.6% of the revenue budget of €92.4 million.
Mr. Taaffe told the members that from last March Bord Gais has legal responsibility to establish a new company, Irish Water, and provide for the installation of water meters countywide.
Full report in this week’s ECHO Group of Newspapers.
