NI Water says 150 customers still without supply

NI Water delivers bottles of water to customers in Derrygonnelly, County Fermanagh

Most homes in counties Fermanagh and Tyrone have had their water restored after a pump at a treatment plant broke down.

About 10,000 were affected over the weekend.

The company said one of five pumps at the plant in Enniskillen broke down and a delay in repairs was caused by ongoing industrial action.

At 22:30 GMT on Monday, NI Water said 150 properties were still without water.

Earlier, NI Water staff delivered bottles of water to schools, pharmacies and others in Derrygonnelly.

NI Water has also set up an alternative water supply at 4 Castle Court and on the Knockmore Road in Derrygonnelly in the car park opposite the church.

The company said anyone needing water should bring a container to fill from the static tanks.

NI Water said repairs were under way at its water treatment works in Enniskillen.

Two schools in County Fermanagh, Lisbellaw Primary School and Tattygar Primary School, closed for the day due to the water supply disruption.

NI Water staff have been bringing water in tankers to the Glenchuil Service Reservoir, Ballygawley

Nipsa, Unite and GMB members voted last month for a work-to-rule and withdrawal of on-call services and overtime.

The dispute is over the issue of pensions.

How do water treatment works operate?

Treatment works take water from dams, rivers and lakes.

Treated water is stored in holding tanks from which customers draw their supply.

If there is a problem, the plant shuts down automatically to protect water quality.

When that happens, the water level in the holding tanks goes down as customers use the water.

The treatment works need to be restarted to replenish supplies.

The work-to-rule means that the works are not being restarted out of hours, and that can lead to problems at weekends and over holiday periods.

Q&A: NI Water pension changes

On Sunday, Unite industrial officer, Joanne McWilliams, said that despite some progress at negotiations mediated by the Labour Relations Agency (LRA), "management had failed to address the workforce's concerns in relation to proposed changes to pension costs and terms and conditions".

The problems originated at this water treatment works in Enniskillen which extracts water from Lough Erne and supplies the majority of homes in Fermanagh

The areas affected by the weekend disruption included Enniskillen, Lisnaskea, Irvinestown, Fivemiletown, Maguiresbridge, Augher, Clogher, Sixmilecross and Ballygawley.

"Despite the fact the company has in place contingency plans to minimise disruption due to the industrial action, resources available to NI Water, out of normal working hours, remain very limited," NI Water said.

Disruption

"As a result service levels have been impacted, in particular in relation to responses to emergency situations."

Gordon Fallis is still without water at the Inishmacsaint Brewery, near Derrygonnelly

Members of the farming community are among those who have been affected by the disruption.

Ian Marshall, president of Ulster Farmers' Union, said a number of farms and plant businesses had been directly affected.

"Our major concerns lie with our dairy industry, intensive sector and our poultry and pig industry where these farm businesses depend on huge quantities of water and it's not just a case that the cut off of water supply is an inconvenience, it actually has serious animal welfare implications, so we are very much concerned," he said.

"It has a direct impact on their livelihoods because remember a lot of these intensive sectors are completely dependent on a plentiful good water supply.

"A number of businesses have a back-up supply but there are businesses operating out there that still depend solely on the mains water supply as their primary and only source of water."

Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy said the issue of pensions contributions was one of executive policy and so was "not in his gift" to change.

"I think it's extremely disappointing that there has been an escalation to the industrial action during the efforts to find a solution," he said.

Unacceptable offer

"In the run-up to Christmas and the new year period we had an agreement with the trade unions to activate emergency cover and now we're finding that has been withdrawn and that is resulting in a loss of water supply."

An empty classroom at Lisbellaw Primary School - it was forced to close due to disruption to the water supply

Ryan McKinney of the union Nipsa said the package offered to workers had been unacceptable and the matter needed to be resolved.

"The message certainly has to be clear here, our members are back to work today they will be fixing problems in Fermanagh and I would hope there wouldn't be disruption during the week whenever there isn't any on-call provision," he said.

"But by next weekend we need to get this matter resolved or more people are facing disruption and that's a situation we don't want to be in."