''I suppose it was reminiscent of the 'Beast from the East', there were pictures last night of empty water shelves''.
Irish Water's largest ever boiled water notice may not be lifted by the bank holiday weekend.
600-thousand people across parts of Fingal, areas in Dublin City Council, parts of South Dublin County Council, parts of Kildare and Dunboyne in Meath are affected by the notice.
Irish Water's website crashed last night after it announced that a fault at the Leixlip water treatment plant may have compromised the disinfection process.
Due @IrishWater's boil water notice for 600,000 people, I’m hearing of supermarkets shelves in Dublin which are empty of stocks of bottled still water. A thread here with thoughts which I could not fit into my #InDeepWater book. (stock image) @GeneKerrigan @davegibney @caulmick pic.twitter.com/Vh3m9HeDKF
— Michael Brennan (@obraonain) October 22, 2019
Fingal County Cllr. Duncan Smith says people are stocking up on water, saying: "My phone lit up last night when the notice went out, people panicked wondering if it affected parts of Swords, all of Swords, all of Fingal.
"There were, I suppose it was reminiscent of the 'Beast from the East', there were pictures last night of empty water shelves from the local Tesco down in Holywell and I'm sure that's the same in other shops, people are going out making sure they are stocked up on bottled water."
Again, Irish people are mad #IrishWater pic.twitter.com/z484tJEGhu
— Ed King (@edking28) October 22, 2019
Irish Water has said that problem has been fixed, but the untreated water that made its way into the system must now be flushed out.
