Drinking water dispensers to hit Gorey town

GOREY town is to benefit from the installation of public water dispensers at three locations, near the Pavilion at the Civic Square, on Main street at the Ulster Bank, and on the Paul Funge Boulevard near the Ramstown road.

Installation works have now begun and these have been widely welcomed by Gorey Tidy Towns as well as members of Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District, when the topic came up during this month’s meeting.

It is expected that installation works will be completed in the coming weeks and the filling stations are being manufactured by Kent Stainless in Wexford.

‘We see these bottle filling stations as an important step in encouraging sustainable behaviour, as we hope that people will use these to top up refillable bottles when they’re out and about rather than buying single use plastic bottles of water,’ said a spokesperson for Gorey Tidy Towns.

‘On the assurances that a water fountain will be part of the redevelopment of the Town Park, we worked with water services to select three locations around town. In time, we hope to add to these locations,’ he said.

Councillors have welcomed this development.

‘ These dispensers should result in the reduction of plastic bottle use and allow for the greater use of reusable bottles. One of our biggest challenges as a society is to reduce plastic use. In certain ways though, this is back to the future as there were historically, water pumps around Gorey town serving homes in our community,’ said Cllr Malcolm Byrne.

He said he would like to see this initiative grow to having at least one dispenser in every town and village in the district.

Cllr Fionntán Ó’Súilleabháin highlighted a motion he put forward late last year in relation to this matter.

The motion read ‘ I call on this Council to further enhance Gorey Town Centre by the installation of a mains water dispenser, providing easily accessible mains line tap water, as is provided in some Irish towns and as is common across Europe’.

Cllr Ó’Súilleabháin said that he was delighted with the development and that this was the way to go.

He highlighted that last month Carrickmacross became the first town in Ireland to install plastic bottle return machines, and that this would go a long way to solving litter problems in county Wexford.