Published 10 October 2026. For live updates always check water.ie or ring Uisce Éireann on 1800 278 278.
On Friday 9 October 2026, Uisce Éireann issued a Do Not Consume Notice, with immediate effect, for everyone on the Ardfinnan Regional Water Supply Scheme in Co. Tipperary — more than 11,000 customers. The notice was put in place with the HSE after a treatment problem at the Goatenbridge Water Treatment Plant allowed intermittent high levels of aluminium into the supply.
This is not a boil water notice. Boiling the water will not make it safe to drink.
Who's affected
- Ardfinnan village and surrounding areas
- Grange, Knocklofty and Newcastle
- Ballyclerihan and parts of Cahir
- Ballingarrane, Market Hill and the Red City area of Fethard
- Kilnamack West in Co. Waterford
- The Graigue Group Water Scheme, which is also fed from Goatenbridge
Not sure if that's you? Enter your Eircode in the Water Quality section of water.ie or ring 1800 278 278, any hour of the day.
What actually went wrong
Nearly every plant treating river or lake water in Ireland doses a clarifying chemical called aluminium sulphate — "alum" in the trade. Its job is to make the fine muck in raw water clump together so the plant's filters can catch it. When that stage is upset, some of the aluminium carries straight through into the mains instead of settling out with the dirt.
That's what has been happening at Goatenbridge. The plant's built-in safety cut-outs kept halting production every time the water failed its quality checks — exactly what they're there for — but it left local reservoirs running low. To keep water in the pipes for toilets, washing and firefighting, Uisce Éireann has had to run the plant with those cut-outs disabled. So there's water at the tap, but it can't be guaranteed fit to drink, and the Do Not Consume Notice went on.
What you must not use tap water for
- Drinking, or preparing any drinks
- Preparing, washing or cooking food
- Brushing teeth
- Making ice
Bin any ice already in the freezer, and dump the water sitting in fridge dispensers and filter jugs. Do not make up bottles for babies under 12 months with tap water — use bottled water (boiled once at a rolling boil, then cooled) or ready-to-use formula. Take care bathing small children so they don't swallow the bathwater.
What you can still use it for
Showers and baths, flushing toilets, laundry and washing-up are all fine — the supply is being kept running precisely so homes still have water for sanitation.
Where to get drinking water
Tankers are in place while the notice lasts — bring your own containers, and boil tanker water before drinking, as the HSE advises. At the time of writing they're at: Ardfinnan village opposite the national school, Newcastle village, Grange village beside the church, Clerihan village beside the church, Newchapel, Knocklofty, Cahir Park Football Club, the Cahir–Mitchelstown road near the BMW garage, Cahir Mart, Cahir Castle carpark and Marlfield village. Bottled water is being delivered directly to nursing homes, HSE facilities, schools and customers registered as vulnerable.
Why boiling is no use here
Boiling kills bugs — bacteria, viruses and parasites. That's why a Boil Water Notice sorts contamination like E. coli. Aluminium is different: it's a dissolved metal, and no amount of boiling takes a dissolved metal out of water. If anything it does the opposite — the steam leaves and the metal stays behind, slightly more concentrated. That's why this is a Do Not Consume Notice rather than a boil notice.
For context, the Irish drinking water standard for aluminium is 200 micrograms per litre. The notice is a precaution, issued with the HSE, while levels on the network are swinging up and down.
"Will my water filter sort it?"
We sell and fit water filtration for a living, so here's the straight answer.
While the notice is in place: no. Uisce Éireann's advice is that domestic water filters will not make this water safe to drink, and we're not going to tell you any different. A filter jug or a standard carbon cartridge does very little for dissolved aluminium, and with levels changing hour to hour nobody can stand over what's reaching your tap. Use the tankers or bottled water until the notice is lifted.
Long term is a different story. One technology genuinely removes dissolved metals like aluminium: reverse osmosis. An RO system forces water through a membrane fine enough to strip out dissolved metals — not just taste and odour — giving you a permanent barrier at the kitchen tap, whatever happens upstream at the treatment plant. Even so, if you already have an RO unit on this scheme, follow the notice like everyone else until it's lifted, then service the unit before trusting it again.
Once the notice is lifted
- Run the cold kitchen tap for a few minutes to flush your pipework
- Bin ice made during the notice and refresh fridge water dispensers
- Replace any filter cartridges that ran during the event — they'll have taken a loading they weren't designed for
- If you have an RO system, change the pre-filters and sanitise it — we can do that for you if you'd rather
Want a permanent barrier at your own tap?
Events like Ardfinnan are exactly why so many Irish households — on mains and on private wells — add their own treatment at home. If you're worried about what's in your water, we'll arrange a sample analysis through an independent accredited lab, then specify and fit the right system off the actual results. No guesswork.
Our reverse osmosis drinking water systems are supplied nationwide, with professional installation by our own team across most of the country. One call covers the lot — plumbing, electrical & water filtration.
Source and updates: Uisce Éireann's official notice. You can also sign up for free text alerts at water.ie.