People in the South East are being urged to conserve water as a lack of rainfall and an increase in domestic water usage has put a strain on water supplies.
Irish Water has asked households to use no more than 24 litres of water per day while under lockdown.
The utility company is asking people to refrain from using power washers and garden hoses in particular.
Carlow Weather's Alan O'Reilly took to Twitter earlier this morning to weigh in on the issue, posting that current forecasting models are showing "no sign of any real rainfall for [the] next two weeks."
I see the @Independent_ie have a story on risk of Drought, I did say the D word could return and looking at latest weather models there is no sigh of any real rainfall for next 2 weeks! Might be time to start minding our water supplies. pic.twitter.com/NXDsjYLz5N
— Carlow Weather (@CarlowWeather) May 12, 2020
Irish Water has also stated that domestic water usage has increased by 20% per person per day due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Climatologist and Professor Emeritus at Maynooth University, John Sweeney says people should prioritise their usage:
"Use water for as much as we need to use it for hygienic purposes, that's the first rule."
He continued: "We know that in the Dublin region and the east of Ireland, water is on a knife-edge between water demand and water supply, so anything we can do to help reduce demand will prolong the period of water security."
