The Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) has hit out at the Government’s draft plan for managing Ireland’s inland and coastal waters.
The network of 25 environmental organisations says the River Basin Management Plan is “completely lacking in the strong ambition, measures and targets needed to restore our waters to good health”.
The plan - the third since 2009 – aims to reflect the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in restoring all of Ireland’s waters to a healthy state by 2027 and to prevent any further deterioration.
“Despite this, only half Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries are currently healthy,” SWAN says in a statement.
“ With river water quality in decline and water pollution now rising at an unprecedented rate, the network of 25 environmental organisations sees this as a water crisis that will persist under the proposed plan,”it says.
SWAN co-ordinator Sinéad O’Brien said that while there are “some welcome improvements in the draft plan”, its lack of ambition is “most disappointing”.
“The plan as it stands is a hotch-potch of actions and aspirations that may, or may not, restore some of our water bodies to health,” she said.
“ In fact, under law we must restore all our waters by 2027, but this plan lacks the specific, targeted and time-bound measures that would provide a clear path to achieving this,” she said.
“One of our key recommendations is to introduce a prohibition on wetland drainage and to develop a national wetland restoration plan. This would not only restore our rivers, lakes, and improve water quality, it would also deliver immense benefits for climate, nature and flood resilience,” O’Brien said.
“Sewage is the main source of pollution in 208 waterbodies, yet the proposed plan doesn’t include measures to fix these by the 2027 deadline,”she noted.
“The fact that raw and poorly treated sewage is still being released into our rivers, lakes and seas is completely unacceptable. The plan should include a requirement that the Irish Water Investment Plan includes action to halt sewage pollution in these waters, as a priority,” O’Brien said.
An Taisce’s natural environmental officer Elaine McGoff said that agriculture policy “must be brought in line with the directive so as to halt and reverse escalating water pollution”.
“Risk assessments based on the directive requirements should be implemented for all intensive farms, including derogation farms. We also need directive-based assessments when giving licences for forestry and a ban on afforestation and re-planting on peat soils in acid-sensitive catchments, which is detrimental to water wildlife,” she said.
Coastwatch coordinator Karin Dubsky noted that “only 38% of our estuaries are now officially ‘good’ status”.
“Healthy estuaries are vital for nature and coastal communities. We need to jump from disjointed promises and aspirations to integrated management, with clear actions to reach at least ‘good’ status in the plan,” Dubsky said.
“Those actions must be integrated across all national level coastal and marine policy, and legislation, including the new Maritime Area Planning Act and the National Marine Planning Framework.,” she said.
Streamscapes project director Mark Boyden said that “to ensure we restore our waters, we need the public and local river groups/trusts involved from the start in the development of action plans for their local waters”.
“They need to be facilitated and resourced to do this. We also need full transparency and access to water quality information,” Boyden said.
In a separate statement, An Taisce has called on the government "as a matter of urgency" to strengthen the proposed measures in the Nitrates Action Programme to safeguard Ireland’s water quality.
An Taisce has recommended a range of actions, and is calling on Ireland not to seek another Nitrates Derogation from the European Commission until sufficient safeguards for water in Ireland are proven to be in place.
The link to public consultation on the draft river basin management plan, which runs until March 31st, is here