Ireland’s Water Resources

Ireland’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters are a proud heritage and a rich resource. Their beauty and bounty have been enjoyed by locals and visitors, humans and wildlife, for millennia. The pleasure and enjoyment that a peaceful, unspoilt stretch of water can bring is priceless, and in Ireland we rely on this very image for much of our tourism. However, it’s an image that is being spoiled for many of our waters.

We’ve been lucky in Ireland. High rainfall, low population density and little industry have meant that our waters have remained some of the cleanest in Europe. But Ireland is changing. We can no longer take this precious resource for granted. There has been a serious drop in water quality in Ireland over the past thirty years. Economic growth with unwise development and lack of supporting sewage treatment along with intensive farming have combined to pollute the clean, abundant waters for which Ireland is renowned.

But one piece of European legislation provides a powerful tool to protect our inland waterways and coasts.   The Water Framework Directive may sound like just another piece of EU jargon but don’t let the name put you off. It has been the driver behind an unprecedented programme of activity in the areas of water mapping, monitoring and planning over the past ten years.

As a result of the WFD, River Basin Management Plans for each of seven regions in the country have been published this year.  These Plans (along with background documents) describe the waters of each region, their current state and the pressures on them.  They also outline some of the measures which will be implemented to restore unsatisfactory waters to WFD standards in the next six years.

The Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) made a number of submissions during the drafting of these Plans and we will continue working to ensure that the Plans are implemented fully and also that shortcomings in the Plans are addressed either through the implementation process or with additional legislation.