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Water Restrictions Levels

It is sometimes necessary to introduce water restrictions. This chart outlines what customers can expect from different levels of water restrictions.

Active management level	Day time impact	Night time impact	General customers experience	Multi-storey customers experience
0	None.	None.	No restrictions.	No restrictions.
1	None.	Midnight — 05:00 Lower pressure, average flow to 2-storey.	Sufficient to fill attic tanks quickly in day-time and slowly at night-time.	Sufficient to supply building pumps at high-rate in day-time and low-rate at night-time.
2	None	22:00 — 05:00 Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor.	No Loss of Supply. Some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks will experience lower night-time pressure.	Some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may experience low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
3	None	22:00 — 05:00 Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor.	No Loss of Supply. Most customers will experience low night-time pressures. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods.	Customers may experience low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
3	None	21:00 — 07:00 Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor.	No Loss of Supply. Most customers will experience low night-time pressures. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods.	Customers may experience low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
4	10:00 — 16:00 Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor.	21:00 — 07:00 Lower pressure, minimal flow to ground floor.	Most customers will experience low pressures during day and night pressure reductions. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods.	Customers may experience low night-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.
5	10:00 — 16:00 Lower pressure, average flow to ground floor.	21:00 — 07:00 Restricted & shuts on rotational basis.	Most customers will experience low pressures during day-time, but no loss of supplies. Supply to some customers on high ground and at remote end of networks may reduce to trickle at kitchen sink during those periods. Most customers will experience full loss of supply during night-time shuts in their area.	Customers may experience low night-time and day-time pressures depending on their building pumping and storage system.

Technical description	Level 0	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Technical description	No Restrictions. Distribution network pressures maintained to accommodate peak flows over 24-hour period.	No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to 2-storey house.	No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only.	No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only.	No Day-time Restrictions. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only.	Day-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only. Night-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for minimum flow service capability to ground-floor only.	Day-time distribution network pressures reduced to minimal practical for average flow service capability to ground-floor only. Night-time distribution network pressure restrictions and shuts on a rotational basis.

Water shortages

Learn why water shortages happen and the current restrictions in place for Ireland.