The County Offaly town of Tullamore has been significantly improved thanks to a major water project.

Irish Water recently completed a key project to build a new water mains in the town, reducing high levels of leakage and improving water quality and resilience for homes and businesses in the area.

The utility worked in partnership with Offaly County Council to deliver the project, through the national Leakage Reduction Programme.

Homes and businesses in the town were often impacted by unplanned water outages. These works, which were complex given the size of the watermain and the urban surroundings, included the construction of over 1.3kms along Clara Road to future proof the water supply in Tullamore. The works also involved the laying of new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers' property boundaries and connecting it to the customers' water supply. The works were delivered by Ward and Burke Construction on behalf of Irish Water.

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Speaking about the project, Anthony Hanniffy, President of the Tullamore & District Chamber of Commerce said: "Irish Water's completion of water mains replacement works under the Leakage Reduction Programme on Clara Road, Tullamore, is a very welcome development for our town. Our town needs modern utilities in order to attract new business to our area and also to be able to keep the world class businesses that we currently have. We welcome Irish Water's ongoing commitment to our area."

Joe Carroll, Regional Delivery Lead at Irish Water added: "Replacing these old watermains that had a tendency to burst will help to safeguard the water supply for customers that previously experienced unplanned interruptions. The installation of the new watermains will also help to conserve water and reduce water lost to leakage. We would especially like to thank the community and businesses for their patience and cooperation as we worked to deliver this vital water network improvement project.

"This project is one example of how Irish Water is working in partnership with Offaly County Council to reduce leaks every day. Fixing leaks can be complicated with over 63,000km of water pipe in Ireland. Most leaks aren't visible, resulting in precious water being lost but we are making progress. In 2018 the rate of leakage nationally was 46% by the end of 2021 it was 38%. We are on track to achieve a national leakage rate of 25% by the end of 2030."