Hundreds of homes and businesses in Ireland have been left without drinking water due to "high levels of turbidity in the water”.
Irish Water confirmed that there are more than 500 households and businesses affected by the outage on the Waterford-Tipperary border.
A boil water notice was issued today, September 8, to 343 homes and businesses that get their supply from Touraneena on the basis that it could be a risk to public health.
READ MORE: Irish Water issues hosepipe ban for West Cork as supplies under 'severe stress'
Later today, a further outage affected Ballymacarbry, near Clonmel, after heavy rainfall, with hundreds more households included in this notice.
Irish Water said the issue of "high levels of turbidity" means that the water is cloudy due to a high concentration of particles.
Following consultation with the HSE and Waterford City and County Council, a boil water notice was issued.
Experts from Irish Water and the council say they are assessing the situation with a view to having the notice lifted as soon as it is safe to do so.
Until that time, all customers who have been issued with the boil water notice are asked to strictly abide by it until further notice by using boiled water for drinking, brushing teeth, and feeding kids.
Water straight from the faucet can still be used for showering, bathing, and flushing toilets, but caution should be taken when bathing children to ensure that they do not swallow the bathing water.
Pat Duggan, Irish Water spokesman, apologised for the inconvenience to customers and said: “We are working closely with Waterford City & County Council to restore drinking water quality for all impacted customers," he said.
"We will monitor the supply over the coming days and will seek to lift the notice in consultation with the HSE as quickly as it is safe to do so.”
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