Irish Water has lifted the remaining hosepipe bans around the country following “significant rain” in August.

The ban was initially introduced in the Greater Dublin Area on Jun 29th, before being extended nationwide on July 4th.

Following a meeting of the Irish Water Board, the utility said it had been decided that justification for the Water Conservation Order no longer applies.

It said it had considered the reduction in demand, the availability of water resources and the prevailing weather conditions before taking the decision.

The utility decided at the beginning of September to extend the ban in 16 counties until the end of the month.

However, increased rainfall in the meantime has allowed it to lift the remaining bans early.

Conservation

In a statement, Irish Water conservation expert Kate Gannon said the conservation orders were vital for reducing significant peaks in demand in early June.

“The orders, combined with the significant efforts of operational teams on the ground and excellent conservation efforts made by homes and businesses across the country, prevented major outages to water supplies in many communities,” she said.

“In the Greater Dublin Area, where we were very concerned about the levels in the Poulaphuca reservoir, the rate of decline has decreased significantly and the probability of an outage is now very low, however Irish Water remains concerned and continues to monitor the recovery levels of the reservoir very closely.

File photo of water levels at Blessington Lakes on 17-09-2018 as sections of land which lay for years underwater were exposed. Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

She said water levels at the Inniscarra dam in County Cork and Lough Guitane in County Kerry have “stabilised and are recovering.”

“While this is very welcome news, it is essential that people continue to conserve water,” she said.

“We are really grateful for all the efforts people made over the past few months in their homes and businesses.

“It was really encouraging to see. Conserving water will make our water sources more resilient and help to safeguard our water for the future, benefiting communities all across the country.”

The Water Conservation Order in effect from 1 September has now been lifted. Rainfall rates have returned or are returning to average rates for this time of year at all observational stations in the Southern, Eastern and Midlands regions. See https://t.co/5Cvoum0UhC for more.

— Irish Water (@IrishWater) September 25, 2018