Find & Fix projects turning the screws on Galway’s leaks

Information below is relevant until further updates are provided here or on our Supply and Service Updates section.

Approximately one-third of all drinking water produced in Ireland is lost to leakage before it ever arrives to taps in homes and businesses across the country. Uisce Éireann is working every day to remedy this situation by reducing the national leakage rate to 25% by 2030, from a high point of 46% back in 2018.

This programme of leakage reduction involves the location, excavation and repair or replacement of aging water mains, some of which have been in place for over a century. It is a huge body of work which is nevertheless bearing fruit; the national leakage rate is trending down and Uisce Éireann is on track to reach its target of 25% by the end of the decade.

These Leakage Reduction Programme (LRP) projects are being planned and executed all over the country, including in Galway City, where several recent projects have helped to reduce the volume of clean drinking water lost underground to leakage before it reaches customers.

Uisce Éireann has been working closely with Galway City Council, whose Direct Labour find teams have been identifying and locating significant leaks around the city.Works along the Old Monivea Road in Mervue have resulted in significant savings. Crews resolved nine separate defects in the pipe network and achieved a reduction in leakage rates from 38m3/hr to 16m3/hr. This was a saving of 528,000 litres, every day. That is enough water saved to supply the daily population equivalent of almost 4,000 people (based on average usage of 133 litres of water per person, per day).

Elsewhere, at Castlelawn Heights in Terryland, works carried out on the pipe network successfully isolated and fixed three separate defects, resulting in the leakage rate falling by half, from 36m3/hr down to 18m3/hr. This saving of 18m3/hr equates to 432,000 litres of clean, treated water saved per day, enough to supply water to the equivalent of 3,250 people every single day.

These leaks were found by the Galway City Council Direct Labour operatives and repairs were carried out by Farrans Construction on behalf of Uisce Éireann.

The successful completion of these projects has the effect of not only significantly reducing the volume of drinking water lost underground through leakage, but also improving the quality of water being delivered to customers’ taps for domestic use across Galway City. These works will also deliver long-term cost savings by improving water network operations, reducing the amount of repair and maintenance required on the system going forward.

Enda Mac Namara, Programme Manager with Uisce Éireann, thanked the local communities for their cooperation while these works were underway.
“As a result of these leakage reduction works, customers in Galway City are enjoying a more secure and reliable water supply,” said Enda. “We were losing valuable clean drinking water underground and water is a precious resource, so to have fixed these leaks and improved the network is a great result. Finding and fixing leaks in the network is an ongoing challenge for us at Uisce Eireann but it is one we are committed to meeting.”

Since 2018, Uisce Éireann has invested more than €500 million to upgrade the underground water network across the country through the delivery of the national Leakage Reduction Programme. Uisce Éireann is investing a further €250 million every year up to the end of 2030 – fixing leaks and replacing pipes to provide a more reliable water supply.

For more information on the Leakage Reduction Programme please visit our dedicated programme page. Members of the public can report any leaks in the public water network by contacting Uisce Éireann at 1800 278 278 or online at Report a Leak.