"Because of the dry weather recently, water levels had dropped and we could have run out of water," Mark Macaulay, council executive engineer confirmed. "If we hadn't (recent) rationing, water was going to run out."

"In response to a water shortage, we needed to do something quickly and didn't have the staff to do it," he explained. Grontmij was called in and reduced supply pressure by ten per cent.

Laois council also appointed Grontmij to carry out leak detection for a period of four weeks for three priority areas - Higgs Lane, Knockmay and Tea Lane.

Prior to the leakage detection, many man hours spent were spent carrying out valve operations to shut down estates to allow reservoirs to fill. This work was generally carried out at night and reversed early in the morning, incurring overtime costs and associated costs.

The recovery of the supply situation during the hot weather is significant and the savings recorded to date have been in the region of 29m3/h. This saving is anticipated to be greater than double when all the leaks detected have been repaired, saving over €30,000 of water at a marginal cost of €0.06.