11 hours a night with no water

In Ireland until Monday the water will be turned off between 8pm and 7am every night due to a water shortage. More than 1.5 million people in Ireland have been hit by a crippling water shortage with 600,000 homes in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare facing 13 hours of disruption each day. The cause is the country's biggest water treatment plant losing 25% of its production. British treatment workers have had to be transferred to the Ballymore Eustace plant to try and find why production has fallen so low. 

The main issue is how this shortage is going to affect the people of the areas who will have no water through the night. Obviously there is bottled water people can buy to drink or people make sure they have enough to make drinks throughout the night whilst the water is still on but surely that defeats the point of turning the water off in the first place because people will just stock up in the day? The other issue that comes to mind is what are the people who need water in the night for making baby formula supposed to do? Or if someone needs an ice bath for a fever? Or even if a family run out of water for that night and have nothing to drink? Especially around halloween water shortages are a huge problem. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the water shortage had been briefly discussed at a meeting of the Cabinet and that the government was in touch with Dublin City Council. His comments came after Senator John Williams told RTE Radio's Morning Ireland programme that the government needed to produce a strategy to prevent Dublin and Leinster "running out of water". The Labour Senator said "housing estate upon housing estate" had been built during the boom but the government had not developed the water supply to meet the increasing need.

Fianna Fail has called on environment minister Phil Hogan to intervene in the ongoing crisis.The opposition party's environment spokesperson Barry Cowen said the lack of accountability over the water chaos is adding to the distress of homeowners and businesses across the region.The Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association have warned that the water restrictions could not have come at a worse time and urged the public to be extra vigilant over Hallowe'en. The capital's fire service responded to more than 600 call-outs in just 16 hours on October 31 last year and water contingency plans are in place should they be required.