By Dan Walsh
With over 600,000 people expected in Wexford for the 2025 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, Uisce Éireann urges residents and businesses to cut back on water use.
Due to reduced rainfall, high temperatures, and increased demand in recent months, Wexford’s raw water supplies are well below normal, resulting in last week’s Water Conservation Order for Wexford.
With demand expected to surge in the next two weeks, Uisce Éireann urges Wexford residents to conserve water to help maintain essential supplies and support a successful Fleadh for everyone.
Fionnuala Callery, Regional Technical Operations Manager for Uisce Éireann, paid tribute to the local population for their efforts to date and asked for continued support over the coming days while the water supply remains under pressure.
“Last year, ahead of the hugely successful Fleadh 2024, Uisce Éireann completed the Mayglass Water Supply Project to ensure resilience to the water supply in South County Wexford. We installated over 3.5km of new water mains taking raw water from two boreholes; located near St Fintan’s Church and at Mulrankin, to Mayglass Water Treatment Plant. This ensured there was an adequate supply for the Fleadh while also enabling further growth in the region,” Ms. Callery told WexfordLocal.com.
“In the first six months of 2025, we repaired 397 leaks across Wexford, resulting in massive savings across the county. Uisce Eireann has also employed the use of specialised detection equipment called Acoustic Noise Loggers to identify the exact locations of the water loss on the underground public network.
“The state-of-the-art technology uses acoustic noise that is more sensitive than the human ear to listen for leaks, with over 1500 of these being deployed across the county- 600 of these in Wexford town. However, conservation is a combined effort. It is important to double down our efforts to reduce demand given the pressures on local supplies.
“Water demand always increases with an influx of tourists and visitors. This year more visitors are expected for the Fleadh as people are set to enjoy a week of traditional music and culture. We are asking people across Wexford to play their part and think about water conservation,” added Ms. Callery.
WexfordLocal.com 