Public Consultation on the draft Regional Water Resources Plan ends on 21 February
Uisce Éireann's public consultation on the draft Regional Water Resources Plan - North West (RWRP-NW) is closing on 21 February 2023. The plan sets out options for providing a more secure, reliable and sustainable water supply for approximately 732,700 customers in the North West region over the next 25 years. A three month public consultation on the plan began in November 2022 and will close on Tuesday 21 February.
Uisce Éireann's National Water Resources Plan will be the first resources plan for the entire public water supply in Ireland. The National Plan will identify the needs across our existing supplies and the challenges and opportunities that we face over the coming years including legislation, climate change, the environment, growth and economic development.
Given the scale of the area to be covered, the National Plan is being rolled out in 2 phases. The National Plan was first adopted in the summer of 2021 and Uisce Éireann has since moved into phase 2, which has 4 separate Regional Water Resources Plans.
The four regions are:
- Regional Water Resources Plan: North West
- Regional Water Resources Plan: South West
- Regional Water Resources Plan: South East
- Regional Water Resources Plan: Eastern and Midlands
Each Regional Plan is subject to its own consultation and, once adopted, all of the Regional Plans and the Framework Plan will be treated as a unified National Plan.
Public consultation on the draft Regional Water Resources Plan - North West will continue until 21 February 2023.
The draft RWRP-NW describes the North West Region and the current challenges faced now and into the future in terms of delivering a safe, secure and resilient water supply. It identifies progress made to date - for instance, leakage reductions, capital investment works, and works in progress.
There are 142 Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) in the North West Region, which collectively serve 732,700 people or 18% of the population of Ireland, via approximately 17,732 kilometres of distribution network and 119 Water Resource Zones. These treatment plants also serve 74,000 businesses. The region itself covers approximately 26,912 square kilometres, encompassing counties Cavan, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Monaghan, Sligo and parts of Clare, Longford, Louth, Meath and Roscommon. Eight islands off the coast of Ireland are also included in the region.
Speaking ahead of the end of the public consultation period, Mairéad Conlon, Water Resources Strategy Lead for Uisce Éireann said, "We would like to thank those who have engaged with us on the plan so far. We received valuable feedback throughout the consultation from individuals, groups and organisations. We would like to remind those who are interested in sending their submissions in response to the public consultation to do so before Tuesday, 21 February."
"The development of a draft plan on how Uisce Éireann will supply water across the North West region is an important step. The draft Regional Plan will offer key benefits in terms of transformation of our supplies, including the ability to cater for growth and economic development in a sustainable way, improved interconnectivity between our supplies to ensure balanced regional development, and new sustainable water sources that are adaptable to climate change."
"The draft plan sets out how we envisage water will be supplied to homes and businesses across the North West region over the next 25 years. A recorded webinar is also available on our website, in Irish and English, for anyone interested. We have also compiled a list of Questions and Answers from our public webinars and published those online as they may be useful to those writing submissions," explained Mairéad.
Uisce Éireann is seeking feedback on the public consultation for the draft RWRP-NW and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement. The documents are available to view at www.water.ie/rwrp/north-west.
A 13-week statutory public consultation will continue until 21 February 2023.
Submissions can be made by post or email by 21 February 2023.
Email: nwrp@water.ie
Post: National Water Resources Plan, Uisce Éireann, PO Box 13216, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
This public consultation is everyone's opportunity to feed into the process of how Uisce Éireann identifies the water supply issues in the North West and determines what the options are to provide a more resilient water supply to customers within the region.
A recording of our webinar in Irish and English is available at www.water.ie/rwrp/north-west.
All submissions will be taken into consideration and responses to the issues raised will be summarised in a Consultation Report, which will be published on www.water.ie/nwrp.