Householders in the Glenribeen area, between Lismore and Cappoquin, say they have been left without running water since August 20th, with no meaningful updates or support from Irish Water.

Among them is Sean Desmond, a retired aid worker who spent four years in Africa without once experiencing a water shortage.

Now back home in West Waterford, he says the current crisis feels worse than anything he witnessed abroad.

“At 11:30 that Wednesday morning, I filled the kettle no problem,” Sean explained to Deise Today. “By 12:45, there wasn’t a drop left. Just air coming out of the tap. We’ve had no water since then.”

Around 15 households in the area are affected. Residents say they have received contradictory and confusing information from Irish Water.

Sean has made repeated calls to the utility company, logging reference numbers and checking daily updates online. While Irish Water’s website claimed a burst water main had been repaired, Sean said he saw no evidence of repair work when he drove the length of the affected road.

“There was no sign of a burst water main, no sign anyone had even dug a hole. What they put on the website was total lies, to be honest,” he said.

Instead, residents have been forced to make do. Some collect water from friends or from the public spout in Lismore; others go to swimming pools for showers. Sean himself now fills his toilet cistern by hand with collected water.

The lack of communication is hitting elderly residents particularly hard.

“I’m a pensioner myself,” Sean said. “Some of my neighbours have health conditions. For Irish Water to treat us like this is disgraceful. We’re being ignored. If this was Africa, someone would have sent a tanker by now.”

Local councillors have stepped in to try and escalate the matter, but Sean says residents are still being left in limbo with vague promises and “flagged” reports.

Frustration is mounting not just at the lack of water but at the absence of clear communication.

“Communication is supposed to be the most basic part of a public service,” said Sean. “They should treat us as customers. Instead, we’re being left in the dark.”

The issue comes as Lismore itself has faced repeated water supply problems in recent months, though the current outage is on a separate system. Residents argue that under the old system, when local councils managed water infrastructure, problems were resolved more quickly because staff knew the network intimately.

“This whole Irish Water setup is a strange outfit,” Sean said. “It just shows what kind of leadership set this up in the first place.”

For the latest Waterford News and Sport, tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.