‘Preferred bidders’ emerge on DBO projects

Construction of a 12km trunk
main linking the Gartylough
and the Bruskey/Killadoon
schemes commenced on 21
March. This particular contract
is due to be completed
on 4 September 2005.
***
Work is ongoing on a number
of contracts outside of DBO
in the county. The
Castlerahan/Mountnugent/
Munterconnaught scheme is
the largest of these and it is
progressing steadily. It is
hoped that the next phase of
this project will soon be
going to tender.
Cavan Federation AGM
The rural water sector in
County Cavan drew down
¤ 18 million investment in
new infrastructure in 2004, a
whopping ¤ 6 million more
than the package allocated to
the county for the year and by
far the largest spend in any
county under the Rural Water
Programme. This was the
heartening message delivered
to the 34 delegates from 16
GWS who attended the
Annual General Meeting of
Cavan Federation of Group
Water Schemes, in the Lavey
Inn on Thursday 27 January.
Federation Chairperson,
Michael Mulvey, acknowledged
the efforts of staff in
Cavan County Council in
accessing unprecedented levels
of funding for rural water
upgrades throughout the
county. In particular, both Mr
Mulvey and Federation
Secretary, Paddy Gill, paid
tribute to the work of the late
John Collins as well as the
new Rural Water Liaison
Officer for the County, Paddy
Connaughton and also
Tommy Costello and Majella
Sheridan. Both Mr
Connaughton and Mr
Costello attended the AGM,
as did Colm Brady and Jean
Gibson on behalf of the
National Federation of Group
Water Schemes.
In contrast to the enormous
progress being made in
addressing the problem of
poor quality drinking water,
Mr Mulvey told delegates
that the monitoring regime
for water suppliers remained
totally unsatisfactory during
2004. There were, he said
‘continuing delays in communicating
results, especially
bacteriological failures, to
the relevant GWS’, and he
added that it was ‘not good
enough’ that such results
were forwarded to the relevant
scheme ‘three, four and
five months after the sample
was taken’.
Pointing out that the area of
monitoring was once again
the responsibility of the local
authorities, he revealed that
Paddy Connaughton would
be consulting with the GWS
sector when finalising plans
for the Cavan Rural Water
Monitoring Programme,
adding that it was intended to
set up a small sub committee
for that purpose. On the topic
of managing schemes into
the future, he urged GWS to
seriously examine the option
of putting paid managers in
place to carry out day-to-day
management functions on
Top: Michael Mulvey, Paddy Gill and Paddy Connaughton pictured
at the County Cavan Federation AGM.
Bottom: Jean Gibson of the NFGWS with committee members of
Bunnoe GWS at their recent AGM.
Facing page top: Billis-Lavey GWS committee members who
completed the NFGWS management training course.
behalf of the committee. He
also urged smaller schemes
to examine the possibility of
appointing ‘shared’ man-
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