‘It is an essential pipeline’
Mounting opposition to water abstraction plan
The Minister for Housing, Local Government & Heritage has reaffirmed the Government’s position on the controversial Shannon water abstraction plan in the face of mounting local opposition.
The deadline for public submissions on Uisce Éireann’s Water Supply Project passed last week. Among those to lodge an objection with an Coimisiún Pleanála was the River Shannon Protection Alliance, which blasted the plan as a “high-risk, high-cost, and environmentally unsound approach to water supply”.
Local authorities have until the end of this month to lodge their submissions. Several local councillors have called on Tipperary Co Council to formally object to the plan.
Asked on his visit to Nenagh last week about the many concerns expressed locally about the pipe project, Minister James Browne said the Government remains committed to delivering the infrastructure.
“It is an essential pipeline,” Minister Browne said. “It is essential to the growth of the Midlands, it is essential to the growth of Dublin, and to Ireland on a national basis as well.
“There are some fears out there but I think all of those fears can be allayed. Uisce Éireann are engaging now with the local authorities and with local community groups as well to allay all those fears that are there. But it is an essential pipeline for the future growth of the country.”
The minister said he recently discussed the pipe plan with the CEO of Uisce Éireann and that the utility would be liaising further with local authorities on the concerns that have been expressed.
“The people of the country need it to happen,” was Minister Browne’s view of the Water Supply Project. “The purpose of it is to facilitate housing growth, economic growth, water that is needed for our hospitals and our schools right across the country.”
‘ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM’
Cllr John Carroll, Cathaoirleach of Tipperary Co Council, said discussions have taken place on the council’s submission and more are to be held next Monday.
He welcomed the “robust” submission from the River Shannon Protection Alliance, and said it along with the council’s submission would bring local concerns to bear on an Coimisiún Pleanála.
“If they are serious about protecting the environment and protecting the habitat, they will have to take great cognisance of what has been submitted,” Cllr Carroll said.
“To me and a number of my own people in my own community, if they don’t it’s an act of environmental vandalism going forward for decades, when we talk so much about environmental protection and protecting what we have - our heritage and our environment.”
The RSPA submission raises a raft of concerns with the Water Supply Project, including the legality of Uisce Éireann making a planning application which, the alliance believed, should have come from the ESB. The local group described Uisce Éireann’s assessment of alternative options to the Shannon water pipe proposal as “incomplete” and “highly selective”.
It pointed to low water levels in the Shannon during dry spells and expressed concern over national water supply in the event of drought, suggesting that the proposed abstraction equates to “putting all the nation’s eggs in one basket”.
The RSPA submitted the Kennedy Analysis as an appendix, referencing local landowner Emma Kennedy’s study of the abstraction proposal and call to fix the leaking water infrastructure in Dublin.
CALL FOR INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT
“It fails to meet the requirements of EU environmental law, national climate policy, and fundamental principles of sustainable water management,” the RSPA concluded of the pipe plan.
“The competent authority is therefore urged to refuse planning permission for the project and to require a comprehensive, independent reassessment of water supply strategy based on: Catchment-scale protection; demand reduction and leakage control; optimisation of existing assets; climate resilience; regional equity.
“Only such an approach can safeguard Ireland’s water resources for current and future generations.”