Dublin Running Dry

The Irish capital is 'running dry' and will require a new source of fresh water within seven years to accommodate its fast-growing population.

It has now emerged that the vast River Shannon may be one of the answers to the shortage of H2O - although residents of the area are far from happy about proposals to take water from the Shannon when the river is in flood - and pipe it to a large reservoir in the midlands.

Dublin City Council's water engineers believe that the capital will require such a new source by 2015 to cater for its growing population.

However, objectors from the Shannon catchment area marched to Leinster House to protest against the original proposals by Dublin City Council to abstract 350 million litres of water a day from the river's two largest lakes to serve consumers in the capital.

The alliance is adamant that the plan to take it from the Shannon would be an "ecological disaster".

Instead, the possibility of taking water from Lough Ree and Lough Derg in winter and storing it in a reservoir on cutaway bog near Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, from where it would be piped to Dublin, is being considered.

This may eventually be the 'preferred option' in a study - due to be completed before the end of 2009 - which would help address the protestors' fears as this plan would overcome fears that the Shannon lakes would be 'drained' if the water was simply piped to Dublin directly.

Domestic water use in Ireland, at 160 litres per capita a day is among the highest in Europe and economists have attributed this to the absence of tariffs based on consumption.

Water charges were abolished in 1997 but the huge capital cost of providing a new supply for Dublin at a time of severe budgetary constraints will pose problems for the Government - who may have to look again at water charges.

(BMcC)