Six-week hosepipe bans are set to begin next Tuesday due to historically low water levels.

The orders will be in place in Mullingar in County Westmeath, Kells-Oldcastle in County Meath and Milford in County Donegal.

Head of water operations at Uisce Éireann Margaret Attridge told The Anton Savage Show that despite the Easter rainfall, lakes in these areas are still low.

“I know in Ireland you might think it has been a manky wet winter, but in some places in Ireland it has actually, over the last 12 months, been very, very dry,” she said.

“The three areas that we put the water conservation order in place, they’re lake sources.

"But these lakes are not like the lakes that you’d find in mountainous areas of Kerry where they’re very flashy, they fill very quickly from rainfall.

“These are groundwater fed lakes.”

Furnace lake in Conemara, Galway county, Ireland. Image: Gabriela Insuratelu / Alamy. 4 July 2011

Ms Attridge said this means that these lakes only fill from rainfall that has absorbed through the ground, which means they fill up slower.

“We’re doing what we can on our side to manage the abstraction from the source,” she said.

“For example, up in Milford in County Donegal, we’ve connected that scheme to an adjacent scheme from Cranford, which is supporting us.

“We’ve got out find and fix crews up there working hard, finding and fixing any leaks, so we’ve managed to reduce our abstraction from that lake by about 40%, which is huge, a huge credit to everybody working hard up there, all the crews.

“But the purpose of this water conservation order now was we really need to go out and ask the public in these areas for their support.”

According to Ms Attridge, there are currently 11 schemes in a drought category across the country.

Main image: Hosepipe. Image: incamerastock / Alamy. 25 August 2008