September 3 1976
We, no less than the people of Britain, are going to have to foot a bill for this delightfully long, dry summer. They are already paying in the way of hours-long water restrictions. Although a state of emergency has not yet been called, there is already a Minister for Drought.
Has the story he tells through newspapers and television made us any more apprehensive about such a possibility as drought in our own corner of Ireland? We doubt it.
Casualness has been the general attitude. It is doubtful if a great deal of notice was taken when water-saving was first mooted in the early summer. Now, admonition is to give way to positive water restrictions which will be announced today by the Minister of State, Mr Don Concannon.
A curtailment of water supplies for about twelve hours a day is likely because the reservoirs are being rapidly depleted and the weather men hold out little hope of heavy rain during the present month.
Industry and agriculture will no doubt get priority, with health safeguards next in line. The domestic user will be at the end of the queue.
It is imperative that water reserves are stretched to the utmost. This has to mean rationing and a conscious effort by every user to use less water.
If this is accepted and the restrictions honoured, we should be able to get by without the sort of water limits now being imposed on the people of South Wales.
The local Water Services has been concerned about the likelihood of water restrictions but shrank from even limited rationing. Mere admonitions about wasting water have evidently not been enough. We must now accept with as much cheerfulness as we can cuts to be announced today.
It is never easy to get a sensible response from people when they are asked to cut down on their use of water. Turning on a tap is habitual and easy. A great deal of water has been wasted unnecessarily this summer and we have got through summer days without inconvenience or hardship. Now we have to pay.
Whatever the cuts are to be, we are unlikely to suffer the sort of hardships experienced in various parts of Britain. In our climate we are always hopeful of rain and we are seldom disappointed.
As in 2026, fifty years earlier, in 1976, Ireland and Britain experienced a significant drought caused by a long spell of dry weather.
