Irish waters strategic national plan now open for consultation

Irish Water published a draft plan for the delivery of water services in Ireland last Thursday, the Water Services Strategic Plan (WSSP).

“We have never had a national plan for water in Ireland – one that looks at the country as a whole,” said Jerry Grant of Irish Water.

“Despite the good work of the local authorities, much greater investment and a nationally co-ordinated approach to asset management, maintenance and operating standards are needed to address weaknesses in the water services systems.

These include high levels of leakage, varying standards in water quality, disruptions to supply, and environmental compliance issues in relation to waste water discharges.

“The new funding model for Irish Water is necessary to ensure that public water services meet current and future requirements and this plan sets out the objectives and the strategies for how the objectives will be achieved.”

Delivering on the WSSP over the next 25 years requires a transformation in how the industry operates and in levels of investment.

The draft Plan has been developed following an initial consultation with statutory bodies and the public in mid-2014 and has been subjected to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and an Appropriate Assessment (AA). Now, Irish Water is inviting all stakeholders and customers to review the draft plan and to give their input.

“People may be broadly aware of the challenges we face based on the recent EPA reports on the states of water supply and wastewater quality nationally for 2013,” said Mr Grant.

“The quality of our drinking water is variable, with over 23,000 people on Boil Water Notices and up to 900,000 people served by 126 water treatment plants classified by the EPA as being ‘at risk’.

“Large numbers of customers regularly face water supply interruptions, often followed by water quality issues and we have a major challenge to meet the lead standards for our customers in older houses and other buildings; we have high levels of water leakage throughout the system; waste water discharges from many of our large urban areas do not meet the required standards and sewage is being discharged untreated from 44 of our collection systems.

The draft WSSP proposes a balanced, coherent, and integrated national approach to prioritise the urgent measures, both operational and investment, to develop a service that meets our short term needs and is still fit for purpose in 25 years.

“It is a hugely expensive process to take water from our rivers and lakes and the ground, and turn it into clean drinking water. It is equally expensive to collect wastewater, treat it, and return it safely to the environment. To put this in context, running the national network of water treatment and wastewater treatment plants consumes more electricity than any industry in the entire country.

As well as delivering higher capacity and quality standards, our plans must increase efficiency, improve resilience to climate change effects and promote more sustainable practises.”

This second round of public consultation runs for two months to April 17. Documents will be available to the public on the Irish Water website (water.ie) and in local authority offices and public libraries.

Those who wish to comment can do so at water.ie/about-us/project-and-plans/future-plans/ by email to wssp@water.ie, or post to: Water Services Strategic Plan, Irish Water, PO Box 860, South City Delivery Office, Cork.