Water outages causes disruption to local businesses

Businesses in Cavan were left counting the cost of a water outage that left them without water this week after the supply was disrupted on from May 10 to May 11.

According to a spokesperson for Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water), the issue was due to a 'reservoir interruption which caused supply disruptions to Cavan Town and surrounding areas in Co. Cavan.'

Latte Da, which is located on Thomas Ashe St in the town, missed out on sales due to the water supply disruption.

Aggie Agnew owner of the café labelled the outage as 'not good enough'.

"We were affected by it all morning on Thursday, May 11", she said. "We usually open for teas and coffees at around 7am, but the water didn't come back until almost half eight, we couldn't sell hot drinks or wash the dishes. We pay big bills [rates] so it's very frustrating and not good enough.

"Even when water did come back it was at half the pressure it usually is, which impacted the coffee machine because it needs full pressure to operate properly. Are the people who caused the problem going to pay my bills? I doubt it. It's hard enough to operate a small business without these disruptions."

She also says that low pressure is not a new thing and can be very common, especially during the summer months.

"From May to September last year we had a problem with water pressure, especially in the mornings and evenings. This has a big impact on our business, but nobody helps to cover my costs."

Another food outlet said the water outage had a major impact on operations, with thousands of euros in turnover lost, while staff wages were also affected.

"Our sales were a couple of thousand of euros short of what they usually are. We were projected to make €13,000 on the full day we were missing it, but we only took in €10,000, so we lost out on a lot of business. We had to send staff home because we were operating at a limited capacity and our labour would be high. People definitely lost out on money," one employee told the Celt.

"We couldn't sell coffees, tea, soft drinks... We didn't have toilets... It could have affected our cleanliness and hygiene standards," she added.

Customers say they received no notification about the outage beforehand and the issue took longer than expected to rectify.

"I rang the council and was told it would be back by 6pm on Wednesday (May 10) but it didn't come back until 9 am on Thursday, May 11.

"We're lucky our owner was very understanding, he knew it wasn't our fault, even though he lost out on lot of money."