OVER A MILLION people in the Dublin area will have disruptions to their domestic and business water supplies continue for up to a dozen further days, with the level of safe drinking water at a key southside reservoir still below desired levels.

Dublin City Council has advised that the curtailed supplies experienced by the capital since well before Christmas will continue until the level of drinking water in the Stillorgan reservoir reaches a thousand megalitres – the equivalent of a billion litres of water, or two days’ regular usage.

At the current rate that water is being reserved with the current outages, it is unlikely that the goal will be reached before January 15 – meaning homes and businesses can expect to have their water supplies continually cut off at evening and night-time hours until then.

The Evening Herald reports that the Stillorgan reservoir produced 545.4 megalitres of treated water on Saturday, which led to an excess of 27.3 megalitres being made available for returning into full storage.

This level of saving, however, will mean that shortages will have to continue until well into next week and beyond before the usual 1,000 megalitre total is reached..

Until then, water services provided by the four local authorities in Dublin, which are run communally, are likely to see significant downtime, as will related services in counties Kildare, Wicklow and Meath.

The Irish Times adds that water shortages around the country have eased, although there are still some shortages in urban areas like Cork and Galway.

RTÉ further reports that businesses and schools have been asked to check on their premises before returning to full activity in the coming days.