Lough Owel water levels remains low

The Uisce Éireann water conservation order for the Mullingar regional public water supply was extended last week to Monday September 16.

The conservation order, or hosepipe ban, was initially issued on May 6 to “safeguard the water supply for essential purposes”. The supply is sourced from Lough Owel and serves over 50,000 customers across a large area of County Westmeath.

However, despite the ban Lough Owel remains lower than previously recorded at this time of year.

Stanley McKeon of the Lough Owel Preservation Society said the low levels are not unprecedented: “At the moment, it’s very hard to tell. The weather doesn’t help the fishing and the water level is just about holding at the low level, but it’s not really conclusive to say that it’s affecting the angling.”

Looking out across the lake, the view of Church Island from the N4 car park shows exposed stone to the right of the island: “Normally, come September, that would be more evident. There’s a long shallow to the north of Church Island. I have often walked out 100 yards along that shallow with no water on it, but that’s going back 20 years ago or so.

“It’s all due to the lack of rainfall. It’s just holding its own. We have a boat at Tullaghan and the lake came up a bit after the rain last week. There were some heavy days of rain. There was thundery rain, and that affected the lake quite severely.”

Stanley says the low level is not damaging the fishing experience: “The angling is good. Generally there’s no complaints coming through about the low water and the angling.

“Temperature is more important for fish. They are more dependent on the temperature of the water than the level. It’s a fresh lake and it’s very deep in places, like out the west side of Church Island. It’s probably about 60 or 80 feet deep.”

The society has a long history of oversight of the lake, having started out as The Fishery Preservation Society of Loughs Derravaragh, Owel and Ennell, in 1885. The Lough Owel Preservation Society spokesperson said the low levels can pose a difficulty for moorings: “If it gets any worse, the biggest factor for anglers will be access for boats. During late spring and early summer the boats were moving out, out, out, out. They’ve stopped moving them now, generally it’s not what you might call an emergency for anglers anyway.”

The receding lake can affect the fauna around the water body: “It’s more likely there’s a reduction in fly life because of the absence of water in the shallows. A lot of those flies that we get, the fish depend on for food. If they die off in the shallows, that’s probably the biggest factor for fish.”

Lough Owel is a spring-fed lake and any rain that falls today will take a number of months to filter through soils and bedrock before it gets to the lake.

Uisce Éireann say they have increased efforts to safeguard supply in Mullingar and the surrounding areas with a series of measures which include improving leakage detection, pipe repair, and overall network management.

Crews have detected and repaired 147 leaks on the public network since November 2024 leading to savings of 708,000 litres per day. That is equivalent to the daily demand of some 5,300 people or the daily requirements for Kinnegad, Kilbeggan, Multyfarnham and Raharney combined.