It's hoped a major new investment by Uisce Eireann into Athlone will reduce flooding in the town.
€114 million is being invested for the development of the Athlone Main Drainage Project.
The development involves the construction of new pumping stations at Golden Island and Coosan West, and almost 3km of new sewers.
Sewer overflows will be eliminated at six locations along the River Shannon, and be replaced by two new stormwater overflows.
The new overflows combined with the enhanced water infrastructure will allow large amounts of rain water through the system and prevent build up leading to floods.
According to Irish Water, this will also safeguard the River Shannon from overflows containing waste water.
Regional Infrastructure Delivery Lead, Eunan Canavan says the current overused system is not capable of holding excess water during heavy rain periods.
Speaking to Let's Talk today, he says this leads to flooding through manholes and pipes
"So when it rains heavily, and there's more of these heavy rainfall events, the network just isn't able to cater for those. Because it's a combined network you do get instances where there's flooding because it backs up in the sewers and comes out of gulleys or manholes and causes flooding that way. Once this project is completed and we get the new pipes in place, the additional capacity will significantly reduce flooding".
