[ Cork City Council - Annual Report 2020 ]
or disturb the customer in any way. The meter is removed from the boundary box and is replaced with a pre-drilled cap with a short plastic hose with a simple stainless steel tap attached. A water sample can be taken from the location by simply lifting the lid of the boundary box, extracting the small hose and opening the tap. There is no longer a need to call to customers directly, and the sampling process is now quicker and safer for all involved. The sampling apparatus is left in situ so that repeat samples can be taken on a regular basis. This allows for analysis of trends over time. The new sampling procedure has received the approval of the Water Compliance section within Irish Water. Water Distribution In addition to the Water Depot in Centre Park Road, a second Water Depot at Water Street has been set up to facilitate social distancing. Each Depot is managed by an Assistant General Foreperson with two crews per Depot. Access to fittings and supplies held in Centre Park Road has been arranged to ensure no mixing of staff between Depots occurs. Call out of hours crews have also been arranged to avoid mixing of staff. The setting up of the second Depot has been a resounding success by maintaining services and reducing the number of close contacts when a suspected case of COVID-19 occurred. Water Services Capital Changes were implemented in work practices to ensure staff were kept safe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Key infrastructure projects resumed following the initial lock down. These included the Lee Road Water Treatment Plant, the Water Network Programme, Leakage Reduction works (which exceeded the of target 4 million litres per day) and COVID-19 stimulus works. Carrigrennan Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrading works were also completed. Drainage Functions such as management of Wastewater and dealing with Flood Events in the City continued as normal throughout 2020, despite the pandemic, without any reduction in service. The expertise and knowledge built up in this
Water Services
A substantial amount of the work carried out by the Water Services Section is on behalf of Irish Water. However, City Council work continues alongside Irish Water work. COVID-19 presented many challenges for Water Services. Water/ Wastewater is an essential service, especially during a pandemic. Throughout 2020 business carried on as usual for Water Services staff, however wide changes in work practices were implemented with no reduction in COVID-19 permitted services.
Some of the measures and innovation developed during the year are:
Water Production Cork City Council is required to test the quality of the water delivered to our customers across the city’s water network. Traditionally, this was done by calling to random houses and taking a sample from the kitchen tap. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, this was no longer an option, so an alternative had to be developed. Water Services staff developed an attachment that could be connected to the boundary box outside a customer’s property to allow a sample to be taken without having to enter the property
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