A 25-year investment plan to be published by Irish Water today will reveal the shocking truth about the state of the water network in this country.
According to the report, it will take at least 25 years just to sort out the immense amount of leakage across an estimated 85,000 kms. of pipes. It will take a decade to replace the lead piping alone.
Irish Water is said to be still compiling a database of treatment plants that are at risk of failing. The network is currently riddled with overloaded sewers and treatment plants dating back to the 19th century.
The company blames the decrepitude of the system to the nonchalant approach of successive governments to the water issue. A lack of capital investment and care has left the original infrastructure of past century Ireland largely untouched. While ‘golden circles’ are created, the water network springs yet another leak.
Conservative estimations put the level of investment required to about €600m per year, for the next few years, just to upgrade the network. However, Irish Water have confirmed that it will have to reduce investment to about half of that amount because the money ‘isn’t there.’
The current level of leakage is about 49%, which means that almost half of drinkable water is lost.