LET’S TREAT OUR WATER WITH ALL THE RESPECT IT DESERVES

WATER is a precious commodity but the only time there is public outcry over this great source of life is when we are asked to pay for it or when we are affected by boil notices. Too often we seem to accept without protest that our water standards are deteriorating and that raw sewage can still be pumped into our rivers and coastal waters.

We are a green island where water is considered plentiful. We market our agricultural produce abroad based on the perception of environmental purity and in normal times visitors flock to our shores to fish, enjoy nature, interact with people and the landscape.

Yet we are not doing enough to take care of our rivers or the water which flows freely from our taps, as has been pointed out by An Foram Uisce (the Water Forum), which was set up as a statutory body in 2018.

Our aversion to conservation measures continues despite increasing demand on our supplies. This demand is coming from our increasing population, industry, planning decisions and the way in which we use our land. It is coming at a time of climate change which could seriously affect water supply.

We know that our waters are being contaminated by nutrient pollution, primarily from agriculture and waste water. Details released today of samples taken last year show that the quality of drinking water was in compliance with bacterial and chemical limits, but we already know that many of our rivers and estuaries fail to meet nutrient environmental quality standards. The result in some cases is excessive plant growth and increased likelihood of harmful algal blooms.

The latest Drinking Water in Public Supplies report shows that supply to more than 1.1 million people is “vulnerable to failure”. There is increasing uncertainty in Irish Water’s planning and delivery of critical improvements to treatment plants. This uncertainty is posing a risk to the health of a large portion of the population, says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It wants determined action by Irish Water to protect and improve supplies.

EPA director general Laura Burke warns that delays in delivering public water improvements put quality and the public’s health at risk. The multiple failures at the Leixlip treatment plant last year highlighted the serious lack of resilience in our supplies. Those failures resulted in two boil notices affecting more than 600,000 people.

The Leixlip plant was one of 52 where significant issues had to be addressed by Irish Water. While this was down from the previous year’s figure of 63, the number affected almost doubled.

It takes time for improvements in water quality to be seen. Progress has been made but we still have a long way to go for the standard of our water to return to where it needs to be. This is required for our own health and compliance with legislation.

Not too long ago we had more than 500 pristine rivers with the highest water quality. You would be hard pressed to find even 50 rivers to fit that description nowadays.

We know that our waters are being contaminated by nutrient pollution