Into the future

Rural Water News Autumn 2006
Continued from page 8
In particular, Mr Galvin
emphasised that the ‘implementation
of binding rules to
give legal effect to good
farming practice will be critical
to Ireland meeting its
obligations under the Water
Framework Directive’.
Source protection
Dr Suzanne Linnane,
Director of the Centre for
Freshwater Studies at DkIT
gave an update on the
National Source Protection
Pilot Project.
After a full year of detailed
monitoring, the project has
identified the nature of all the
pollutants in Milltown Lake,
source for Churchill & Oram
Group Water Scheme. ‘Lowtech’
remedial solutions are
shortly to be introduced on
sections of the lake catchment
and intensive work is
starting on farmyard and septic
tank surveys.
The community remains
central to this project and Dr
Linnane said that following
on from a successful pilot in
local primary schools earlier
this year, the project had
designed a Water Science
course for primary schools
generally.
Farming
Both Jim Ward of Teagasc
and NFGWS Chairperson,
Brendan O’Mahony, looked
at source protection from a
farmer’s perspective. In Mr
Ward’s case the emphasis
was on the practical application
of REPs measures as a
means of restoring water
quality.
A series of ‘before and after’
photographs underlined his
case that remedial measures
can have a major positive
impact on river banks and on
water quality within a short
timeframe. His presentation
also supported the wider case
for a tailored REPs scheme to
encourage intensive farmers
to buy into the programme’s
water protection measures.
Left: Gerry Galvin, Principal Advisor (Water) at the Department of the
Environment, Heritage & Local Government, explained the implications
for Ireland of the Water Framework Directive.
Above: Tom Kirby of the WSNTG with Minister Brendan Smith, TD.
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