How does clean Water get to my House?
Fingal County Council provides clean safe drinking water to nearly everyone in the Fingal area, to parts of Dublin City and other counties nearby. In some Third World Countries they do not have safe water to drink, and they often have outbreaks of diseases that are caused by dirty water. You might have seen appeals on the TV to give money to help stop these diseases like “Trachoma” which effects the eyes and can make you go blind. Other illnesses are cholera, malaria and typhoid.
Thankfully, before the water gets to your house it is treated at a water treatment works. Fingal County Council have two water treatment plants that clean millions of gallons of water every day. One is located in Leixlip and treats river water from the River Liffey. The second one is much smaller and is located in Balbriggan, this one uses groundwater. Water from rivers needs more cleaning than groundwater as it may have twigs, stones etc in it. These are screened off first of all. The water is then cleaned by putting it through various filters. This takes out all the little particles of dirt. Chemicals are added to make the dirt particles stick together, these are then taken off as sludge. At the end of the process, chlorine is added to the water to disinfect it and make it safe to drink. The water can also be passed through carbon to make it smell and taste better.
After the water is treated at Leixlip, the water is pumped through large pipes to the storage reservoirs at Ballycoolen. A reservoir is a big underground tank where the water can be kept without getting dirty. If needed, more chlorine is added to keep the water clean. From the reservoirs, the water is distributed around the county in smaller pipes to the towns and villages. Smaller pipes will bring the water to your road, then a smaller pipe again will go from here and into your house. Some will go straight to your kitchen sink and the rest will go up into your water tank in the attic.
Some houses are a long way out from the main villages and towns and are not connected to the public water supply. These houses use local groundwater wells and have a special filter fitted underneath their kitchen sink to clean the water.