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Irish Water have been forced to issue another Boil Water Notice to 600,000 homes supplied by the Leixlip Water Treatment Plant.

This is the second time in the space of two weeks notices have been issed.

The HSE, Irish Water and Fingal County Council said that due to heavy rain, turidity - cloudy water due to suspended particles levels - in the source water of the old Leixlip Plant has exceeded acceptable levels leading to the new notice.

Eamon Gallen, Irish Water’s General Manager said: "Irish Water acknowledges and apologises for the impact and inconvenience caused by this Boil Water Notice to homes and businesses.

"We are very disappointed that a Boil Water Notice has to be imposed again but as we outlined the last time, our number one priority is the public health and the safety and well-being of our customers.

“The choice we were faced with was customers having a severely restricted water supply for a long period of time or having water for sanitation purposes such as showering and flushing of toilets.

"We were left with no option but to resume production at the old plant in the knowledge that a Boil Water Notice would then be necessary.

"We will work with Fingal County Council to get the Boil Water Notice lifted as soon as possible, subject to consultation with the EPA and HSE.”

There were no issues at the new plant, where the level of turbidity was managed by the newer technology on site.

But water chiefs said it was essential to re-start production at the old plant, which produces 20% of drinking water for Dublin, otherwise significant restrictions and outages would be inevitable.

As Irish Water cannot guarantee the quality the water from the old plant, the Boil Water Notice is once again in place.

As with the last Boil Water Notice, around 600,000 people are impacted.

The areas impacted include parts of Fingal, areas in Dublin City Council, parts of South Dublin County Council, parts of Kildare and Dunboyne in Meath.

A map of the affected areas can be found on water.ie .

Irish Water said it is in the process of contacting registered vulnerable customers who are affected by the Boil Water Notice to advise them.

Customers who have any queries regarding the Boil Water Notice should contact Irish Water directly on our customer care helpline 1850 278278.

