'250,000 litres waste after meter put in'

By Luke Byrne

WATER has been leaking from the site of a newly installed water meter for more than 12 weeks, it has been claimed.

Paul Kealy, who lives on Howth Road, in north Dublin, told the Herald that he has calculated that up to 250,000 litres of water have been lost since the leak started.

And he claimed that despite numerous calls to Irish Water, from him and on behalf of an 87-year-old neighbour, the problem hasn't yet been fixed.

"Irish Water has a campaign claiming they are safeguarding water for the future generations, but there's not doing that from what I can see," Mr Kealy said.

He said that he measured how much water was being leaked and that he estimated that it was around two litres a minute.

"It seems to be a rogue meter, sitting between my house and my neighbour's.

"He was saying to me that he thought it was my meter and I was saying to him that I thought it was his," he said.

"We've put in about half a dozen calls to Irish Water. We had someone who came out and said that the leak appeared to be fixed," he said, adding that it has not been fixed.

"I don't know, he could have some out on a warm day when the water had evaporated," he said.

"If it stays like this over the winter it could become very dangerous, the water could freeze and someone could slip. My neighbour is an elderly man," he said.

Mr Kealy said that as of yesterday, the site was still leaking and that there was a stream of water coming from it constantly.

Taking matters into his own hands, he last week erected a sign at the site, notifying the public about the problem.

"Irish Water currently employ 4,000 people, maybe they're under staffed," the sign said.

A statement from Irish Water said the issue had been investigated and the leaks were not caused by metering works.

It said that the leak was on the customer side "and as such is the customer responsibility".

"While the Government have announced that there will be a first fix scheme, the details of how this will be implemented are being compiled at present with the plan for this to begin next year," it added.

Mr Kealy insisted the leak emerged after the installation of water meters.

hnews@herald.ie