Green Party representative for Dun Laoghaire, Cllr Ossian Smyth, has today called for action on lead water pipes after discovering that as many as 10% of residential properties in his area may be affected. Smyth outlined the health concerns related to lead consumption, particularly to infants and young children, and stated that affected homes should be exempted from charges until the matter was resolved.

 

Cllr Smyth said: "People have the expectation that the water they pay for is clean and safe to drink, but the latest figures provided to me by Irish Water prove that the problem of lead contamination has been seriously underestimated. My research has shown that as many as 8,500 homes in Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown may be affected by lead contaminated drinking water supplies. 

 

"Lead consumption poses a serious risk for young children in the early stages of development, and has been linked to a multitude of ailments, including negative impacts on the development of a child’s brain leading to problems with learning, behaviour and attention. The risk is greatest for young children, infants and babies in the womb, and with 15,431 children aged 10 or younger counted in Dun Laoghaire at the last census, clearly there is a serious problem which needs to be resolved.

 

"The HSE have stated that even low levels of lead can have small but significant effects on health, and that no level of lead in drinking water is now considered to be completely safe. Disseminating information about this risk is critically important for those caring for bottle-fed infants, young children and pregnant women​.

 

"It is my intention to inform households affected in my local area personally within the coming days and weeks.

 

"It is time for the Government and Irish Water to act on the recommendations of the EPA and to implement their request for a national strategy to achieve compliance with the lead standard. Thousands of households are clearly going to require financial support in order to implement the necessary changes, and the Department of Education also needs to outline how it is going to rectify the problem where it exists in schools.

 

"The current advice from Irish Water and other health related bodies is that if you have a lead problem in your water, you should flush through the pipes in order to remove any stagnant water which has been in contact with pipes  overnight or during the day. While households are currently paying a flat charge, when metered billing comes into operation any such action would clearly add huge costs onto the individual home owner. I believe the Government and Irish Water should commit that no household which is affected by this problem will be charged for water consumption so long as their supply is contaminated by lead." 

 

 

 

Dear Councillor Smyth,

 

Further to your query regarding lead and asbestos water mains in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.

 

Please be advised that there are only a handful of lead mains in the country, and these are being replaced by Irish Water as a matter of priority. All remaining lead is on service connection pipes to individual houses and in house plumbing systems. Lead in water is effectively entirely due to privately owned pipework. Note that asbestos-fibre-reinforced concrete pipes are in place throughout Ireland and abroad. The asbestos is permanently bound into the concrete in the pipes, and cannot leak into the water. There is effectively zero risk to water quality due to asbestos-fibre-reinforced concrete pipes.

 

The length of the Drinking Water network in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown is 1,055.9 kilometers. Of this 72.3 kilometers is Asbestos-Cement material (6.8%). There are no Lead water mains in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown. Service connections are not recorded in the Irish Water Geographical Information System in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, so no exact figure can be given for lead service pipes in the area. However, as part of the metering programme, out of a total of 14,963 meters installed in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, 1,453 of the installations reported Lead service pipes (9.7%). Please see attached document re Lead piping.

 

Yours sincerely,

 ​

Local Representative Support Desk​