Galway Bay fm newsroom - Irish Water is defending its out-of-hours communication methods after a major water outage in the west of the city.
The supply problems followed a burst water main in the area over the bank holiday weekend.
Customers in parts of Knocknacarra, Kingston Road and the surrounding areas were affected, and over 50 of these residents contacted Irish Water in relation to the outage.
The utility has come under fire for its communications methods - with City Councillor Niall McNelis claiming the company could not be reached on its various helplines.
In a statement to Galway Bay fm news, Irish Water says the mains burst was an unplanned incident and it was therefore impossible to forewarn customers.
Meanwhile, the utility says increased seasonal demand on the water supply in the Roundstone area of Connemara is to blame for poor water pressure or a lack of supply there in recent weeks.
Irish Water has been called out on a number of occasions since late July, but no solution has been found.
As a result, the fire service has been called out in a bid to pump water in for hotels, guesthouses and other businesses in the area.
Locals are concerned that the ongoing water supply issues could seriously damage the area's tourism business.
Irish Water says its website is kept up to date with all supply issues and service notifications, planned or unplanned.
It also says it operates a dedicated Monday to Friday phone line for elected representatives, while out-of-hours queries are dealt with by its call centre.
