Opposition to Shannon water abstraction

PROPOSALS to take water away from the River Shannon to build an eco-water park and reservoir supplying Dublin were described as “daft” this week.
On Tuesday, Bord na Móna chief executive Gabriel D’Arcy addressed the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment regarding the proposal.
He said Bord na Móna have been in talks with consultants appointed by the Minister for the Environment regarding the establishment of a national water board to run the country’s water supply.
He said the water park and reservoir, which would be built in County Offaly would supply 350 million litres of water to the east coast, which would create 1,000 construction jobs, while there would be 100-150 tourism related jobs arising from leisure pursuits.
However, Clare TD Timmy Dooley, who is a member of the committee, said major flaws in Dublin’s water supply system would want to be corrected before hundreds of millions are spent on getting water from another source.
“There is no sense in constructing a purpose-built reservoir in the middle of the country to pull water out of the River Shannon and send it to the greater Dublin area where up to half of it will just run out of leaking pipes,” he claimed.
Arguments about jobs are spurious, he added. “The 1,000 jobs touted by Bord na Móna during the three-year construction phase of the €480m reservoir development on a 1,500 acre site at Garryhinch, County Offaly could be created by upgrading pipes in Dublin and the wider region. This would also reduce the amount of water leaking out of pipes every day.
“There are many tourism opportunities available to the country without building a water sports centre in the middle of the country to justify this unnecessary 800-acre man-made lake. If this project goes ahead, the amenity value, together with the negative impact on boating and fishing in Lough Derg, will offset any projected tourism gain in the Midlands.”
He said there are more sensible options for supplying water to the capital. “The argument put forward in favour of this project doesn’t stand up. Those in favour say, it needs approval urgently because Dublin and surrounding counties are running out of water, yet this project is not expected to be completed until 2020 at the earliest.
“I would respectfully suggest that Dublin City Council and the other authorities involved go back to the drawing board and look at desalination.”
Martin McEnroe of the Shannon Protection Alliance said there will be very strong resistance to the proposals. “I think it’s the daftest idea I’ve ever came across. We’ll be fighting it at every level. We’ve fought it for the last three years and we will continue to fight it.”
He agreed with Deputy Dooley’s view that taking water from the Shannon is unnecessary, while he feels it could have a detrimental effect on the Shannon Region. “It has an effect on the environment and a huge effect on the development of the whole Shannon Region. If surplus waters on the Shannon are gone, where will water come from to service the towns and villages that want to develop in the future? There’s no need for it, they can put reservoirs in their own region. They can put a reservoir on the Boyne or the Liffey. There’s surplus water on every river, the same as there is on the Shannon.
“The other disturbing point that’s after coming out in the last few days is that this isn’t a Dublin project anymore, it’s a national project now for Bord na Móna. They were even talking on the radio about supplying Galway. This nonsense has to stop; we have to protect the industry that is there. Anglers have spent millions in the last 15 years developing a proper fishery on the Shannon and now it’s classified as one of the finest wild mixed fisheries in Europe and we have to protect that.”
Gerry Siney, also of the Shannon Protection Alliance agreed the development could have very serious consequences. “There really are two problems. First of all, it has the potential to damage the ecology of the river. It also has the potential to do enormous economic damage to the communities that live along the Shannon. The river itself has a huge economic dimension; tourism, boating, fishing, the hospitality industry. If the river is compromised by the lowering of its depth or the lowering of its quality, then massive damage could be done. Having said all of that, our contention is that none of this is necessary. They have not considered the alternatives to dipping their pipes into the Shannon. They’re taking the soft option by doing this and there are alternative supplies available to them which we have outlined,” he concluded.