What happens in the next big freeze?

The thaw has finally unfrozen the pipes, and let water flow again to the hundreds of homes around Mullingar which spent in some cases up to three weeks without water.One of the largest areas affected was Lakepoint, where most of the five hundred and fifty households were affected, and left without water until late last week.Some had been without water since Christmas Eve.By last weekend, many had become amateur plumbers out of necessity. Now, their fear is: could it happen again?Despite the efforts of the Lakepoint Residents' Association, people are still searching for answers. Why did the pipes freeze in the first place? Were they not been laid deep enough when the Lakepoint houses were first built back in 2000? And whose responsibility was it to fix the problem and re-supply individual houses with water - the developer or Westmeath County Council?Liam Maher and his wife Catherine, a couple in their seventies, were finding life very difficult without water. In his attempt to fill the tank so the toilet could flush, Liam had almost put his foot through the ceiling, not an activity any seventy-year-old wants to be taking on."What makes it worse is that we know nothing about plumbing, I never did any DIY or trades, so I wouldn't even know where to look for a stopcock," Liam told the Westmeath Examiner last week."We'd have been lost without the Residents' Association here because on Sunday, they came with the big 20 litre water jars, there was a team of about eight of them. If we didn't get it filled that day our heating would have gone completely," Liam explained."They say it's the individual pipes leading to the houses that are frozen because they were not laid deep enough in the ground, but I guess there has been nothing like this before in living memory, not that I can remember anyway," he said.Cllr. Aidan Davitt, who supplied the Residents' Association with 20 litre water jars to help people living in the estate, said he wasn't sure who was to blame:"We're going to be relying on the Gods to restore the water at this stage," said Cllr. Aidan Davitt. "The estate itself was a mass development by Daracom, who have provided standpipes for water, as have Westmeath County Council, so people could get some access," he explained."The estate itself has not yet been taken in charge by Westmeath County Council because there are a few more things left to be ironed out here.""I'd say it is a natural process at this stage. My own water came back itself after six days. To say that the Council will come and do it - it wouldn't be their responsibility, and the developer again - the whole estate was built by five different developers so the chances of that happening are quite slim," he said."It has been very tough but I would have to say the silver lining in all this is the community spirit here in Lakepoint. It's great to see the Residents' Committee here and nine or ten other people going around and hauling 20 litres of water up into people's attics, the community spirit has been the real winner here."When the "big freeze" came on January 7, according to Tracey O'Brien, Chairperson of the Lakepoint Residents' Association, eighty percent or more of the houses in the area were without water:"The situation really began to get serious after New Year's Day. Before that we had heard of isolated houses without water - some of them since Christmas Eve, but then it just escalated very quickly," said Tracey.Developers Daracom provided residents with a mobile standpipe, enabling crews of men to go door to door, sometimes working from nine in the morning until nine at night to supply the large estate with some water. Westmeath County Council installed two standpipes for Lakepoint, but could do no more as the estate has not yet been taken in charge."It was like a domino effect," continued Tracey O'Brien. "Once one house went without water, we heard of another and another. We were kind of left to our own devices in a sense. We even had to grit the inner estate roads ourselves, people simply went out and started salting roads and pavements because nobody could get in or out of the estate at all by Stephen's Day," she said.Community spirit and Facebook"The only thing that has really come out of all this, even though we are in a very large estate we still rallied together," continued Tracey. "People were helping out their neighbours.There is a really great community spirit being displayed here and we hope to maintain that is because we have set up a Facebook site and a Hotmail address."Stephanie O'Keeffe was eleven days without water, only after Westmeath County Council began rationing the water at night:"I've been in touch with the Council and they've blamed it on the pipes and said there isn't anything they can do, but my water was running fine until they started turning it off at night," she said.Michelle Maher and her family were into their second week without water: "We have a bath full of water so we fill water into saucepans and take it downstairs and boil it to wash the dishes. Flushing toilets is now a two person job - little inconveniences that on their own they're not that much hassle, but put them all together with everything else that you're dealing with, it's a lot of hassle," said Michelle.Maureen O'Hehir from The Green in Lakepoint had made contact with the Council three times but to no avail:"I'm only without water since the weekend so I'm not the worst off, but the first time I called I was told it wasn't the Council's problem. The second time I rang I was told there was a water tanker on site and they took my name and address and said somebody would contact me, but to date nobody has."The third time I rang they simply told me that there was a thaw on and the water would be back on. Maybe if there was a better plan in place from the start it would help in situations like this," said Maureen O'Hehir.Tracey O'Brien had the final say: "There is definitely a lot of frustration on behalf of the residents because there are so many questions to be answered.There has been absolutely no problem with the mains water supply, it's the pipes going from the mains into the individual houses that have been freezing up and we want to ask the question why?".