Irish Water is studying a number of locations where it can extract water from Ireland’s largest river before pumping it to a reservoir in the Midlands to supply Dublin.
CAPACITY:
The plan to take water from the Shannon, part of a €1.1bn investment to be announced this week, is likely to be opposed by people living along the river.
As it stands the water system in the Dublin region - working at beteen 96 and 99pc capacity - is described as “operating on a knife edge on a daily basis”.
Dublin suffered water cuts last year due to problems with a waste treatment plant.
A source said: “The slightest impact and we are in serious difficulties as demonstrated a couple of months back with the difficulties at Leixlip treatment plant. The Vartry scheme which also serves Dublin is 19th century and
has all sorts of problems.”
The scheme to take Shannon water is deemed necessary to relieve this situation with the planning process for the project set to continue up to 2016.
During that time an Environment Impact Statement will be drawn up and there will be public consultation as well as an application to An Bord Pleanala.
If planning permission is granted, designing the system will take another 18 months with construction taking up to three years after that.
It could be completed between 2020 and 2022 depending on delays.
News of the plan comes as it emerged that the agency is scrapping a €340m expansion of the Ringsend waste treatment plant, with Irish Water saying it couldn’t justify the costs.
It had originally planned to run a 9km pipe to pump waste water into Dublin Bay.
UPGRADING:
According to the agency the upgrading of the plant can be completed at half the cost with the underwater pipe element being abandoned.
The existing waste treatment centre is too small and does not meet European standards.
Dublin City Council’s plan to expand it was due to start this year with an estimated cost of €270m.
However, the Irish Times reports that when Irish Water took over responsibility for waste water in January a risk assessment study put the cost at €340m.
A spokesman said that new technologies have emerged which will cut costs for the project to €170m.
------------
UPDATE: Irish Water is planning to invest almost €1.8 billion in water and waste treatment improvements over the next three years.
The investment, which is substantially more than the indicative funding available to the utility, will deliver urgently needed improvements in drinking water quality, leakage, water availability, and waste water compliance.
Five months after being set up by the Government Irish Water is now taking control, reprioritizing, and ramping up the water infrastructure programmes of our 34 local authorities.
The programme is going to cost €1.77 billion in the first three years, but there will be billions more spent over the following five or six years.
That represents a big boost in investment for the economy with over 380 separate projects listed.
The priorities include eliminating boil water notices in Roscommon, providing more water, and reducing disruptions to water supply in the Dublin Area.
Improving water quality, increasing waste water treatment capacity, and improving environmental compliance are also priorities.
With in excess of 700 million litres of water per day being lost through leaking water pipes a major programme to tackle leakages is included.
Irish Water says that this leakage programme, combined with the completion of existing works at Ballymore Eustace and Leixlip, will solve Dublin's water issue in the short-term.
However, Irish Water says that the project to divert water from the river Shannon to the Greater Dublin Area will still be required in the medium-term.
No comments:
Post a Comment