[dropcap]In[/dropcap] the aftermath of Storm Emma, Dublin City Council announced water restrictions across the greater Dublin area which left DCU without water across its campuses.
Staff and student toilets were not in use and the Starbucks’ on the Glasnevin campus were unable to serve coffee for two days while residences were left with no running water for almost two weeks.
To alleviate the pressure put on the limited resources of toilets, Portaloos were placed on the Glasnevin campus.
“The restrictions by Irish water means that the water pressure coming to campus was reduced,” said Gerard McEvoy of the Estates Helpdesk.
He went on to explain that in the DCU network there are lower pressure points than others.
“That’s why there’s water in College Park Residences but Hampstead are experiencing low pressure,” he said.
He also noted that “problems are magnified due to the volume of people on the Glasnevin campus.”
He said that the tanks of the residence buildings are being prioritised and continuously monitored, many of which were filled overnight or in the mornings.
“Most people shower in the morning so tanks that were filled overnight are empty again by the afternoon,” said McEvoy.
He said that while water pressure was starting to stabalise on Glasnevin campus, All Hallows campus was experiencing low pressure at the time.
“It has been awful, I even had to wash my hair in the sink,” said Maria Murphy, a Hampstead resident and Global Business student in DCU.
McEvoy said that the pressure is “coming back to normality” and that “the levels on reservoir are rising.”
“However, we are working closely with the health and safety officers to monitor the tanks,” he said.
The Estates Helpdesk were asking students to try and conserve water where possible but recently stated in an email that Irish Water “have no further plans for water pressure reduction measures for the remainder of this week across all DCU campuses,” despite the previous email stating that the restrictions could continue until the weekend of March 17th and 18th.
Elsa McEvoy
Image Credit: Healthline