ISLANDERS ON Inis Oírr require an urgent and lasting solution to annual summer droughts, according to the manager of the island’s co-op.
Water is currently rationed for seven hours a day from 11am to 6pm on the southernmost Aran island and residents are looking forward to rain.
A rainwater harvesting course has been organised by the co-op for the autumn, according to manager Paddy Crowe, who says that years of shortages have taken their toll.
Galway County Council has dug 11 boreholes. Spokesman Martin Lavelle explained that the island was like “a freshwater lens on top of seawater” and it was very difficult to dig a well without salt water contamination.
Water supplies would last to the end of the month, with conservation; for some unknown reason, Mr Lavelle added, Inis Oírr had experienced a very dry period over the last three months.
Inis Oírr has a population of just under 300, but this increases to about 1,000 during the summer with college students and visitors. Last year, water was restricted to 12 hours a day.
A 1996 report identified infrastructural difficulties on the island, with a main reservoir at risk of seawater contamination when at a particularly low level. A subvention of €1 million was given by the State to provide an extra holding tank.
The problem was so critical in 2005 that a fishing vessel, the Girl Stephanie, was commissioned to make a series of supplementary water deliveries to the island from Rossaveal, Co Galway.
