IRWC welcomes An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP) delaying the decision on the proposed Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region project in order to take the time it needs to carefully consider the impacts and consequences of this proposed river basin water transfer (inter-basin water transfer). The Uisce Éireann project proposes to abstract and treat to a potable standard, water from the Lower River Shannon, and to transfer the treated water along a 172km pipeline to County Dublin. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, of which Ireland is a signatory, cautions in their River Basin Management Handbook, that water resource development projects such as inter-basin water transfer projects, “[modify] the natural conditions that have allowed wetlands to develop [and] have had a significant negative impact on wetlands and associated biodiversity.”
The Ramsar Convention also encourages water demand management, water conservation and to ensure that we are allocating water resources efficiently and in a socially acceptable manner.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (to recognises the importance not only of Ramsar Sties but of all wetlands. The River Shannon is protected as an SAC, SPA and pNHA and is internationally significant for a number of wetland habitats, mammals and bird species. It also provides many ecosystem services such as water provision, water regulation, climate regulation, tourism and recreation to name a few. In light of the existing Nature Restoration Regulation and the Convention’s commitment to Wise Use, the IRWC consider that it is wise for the ACP to take sufficient time to undertake a considered assessment of the current proposal to undertake inter-basin transfer of water from the Shannon to the Eastern and Midlands region.
Click here to read the Ramsar Convention’s River Basin Management Handbook