This was Eamon De Valera’s promise when he was Taoiseach nearly 70 years ago.
In the meantime the Shannon has continued to flood, with last year’s incidents a salutary reminder of the power of the river.
The Dublin local authorities want to bring water from the Shannon to meet a projected and significant shortfall in water capacity in the Midlands and the Greater Dublin Region from 2016.
The Shannon Protection Alliance is opposed to the plan. But many of their arguments are not based on evidence. For example, they claim ‘the plan contravenes the EU Water Framework Directive because of lack of consultation and failure to address adverse effects.’ The SPA should read the Strategic Environmental Assessment published in November 2008 which clearly deals with the concerns expressed by local land community groups. There has been significant consultation on this project.
The SPA also claims it has the support of 1 million in opposing the scheme. That is a bit over the top. Has anyone asked the farmers, householders and businesses who are flooded every year if the proposed scheme is a good idea?
‘The plan will spell the end of all planning and development in the towns and villages situated on the Shannon’ is another widely exaggerated claim based on not a scintilla of evidence.
How about the following: ‘…the plan will bring about the swift, total and irreversible demise of tourism, leisure activities, agriculture, and the destruction of the fragile ecology’. More hyperbole.
How about a few facts for a change:
- Some 1,000 mm of rain falls on the Shannon catchment area every year; a daily average of 2.7mm. Drawing 300 million litres a day (which is the proposal) is the equivalent of 0.02 mm/day: basically equivalent to a normal shower of rain. Source: Met Eireann.
- The scheme is designed to provide water supplies to the counties of the Midlands, Kildare and Dublin. So it is a scheme to help the East Region of Ireland.
- The scheme will have to be approved by An Bord Pleanála. This will require a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment to be prepared and will allow all parties ample time to comment and appeal the decision.
- To take account of seasonal flooding the option of diverting water into bogs at Rochfordbridge/Portarlington is being considered.
- Ireland’s most pre-eminent climate scientists are forecasting that last year’s flooding will become more commonplace and that there will be less rain fall in the east of the country.
The water that falls onto Ireland does not belong to anyone. It is a national natural resource. Therefore it makes sense in order to sustain jobs and to meet demand from households that that resource flows to where it is most needed in the country.
The SPA needs reassurances. The planning process should address their concerns.
The Midlands and the Greater Dublin Region need water. The planning process will determine how best this can be done in a sustainable manner.
And in words of Phil Fitzpatrick’s song…..where the Shannon waters flow.
August 18, 2010 at 8:07 pm |
Peter,
I have to admire your optimism in trying to bring this discussion onto a logical footing, where rational considerations and the good of the wider community are taken into account.
“Them fellahs up there in Dublin are not getting our water” is the cry, an attitude based on the tribalism that fragmented this country and made it easy to colonise, a tribalism that effectively kept us in the dark ages until we joined the EU in 1973 and although the EU has managed to overcome, or circumvent, some of this tribalism, when it can, it raises head with whoooops of triumph.
What can we expect when the core values of the country are based on a political and sporting system that pits village against village, town against town and County against County and personal greed and cutewhorism are not only admired but actively encouraged by a populace that scream encouragement at the tribalism that is county sports and re-elect, time and time again, those who have been shown to be dishonest, just because they are from “The County”
The lunacy of local government, the moribund Health Service, the country’s waste strategy all point to there being another 70 years of hand wringing and whinging in the winter floods, with a return to “you’re not getting our water” once the waters recede.
If only we had some leadership that would set policies in the “national” interest, with the guts to see off the vested interests and those who object, just because they can or have nothing better to do.
It is so frustrating when the logic of fixing two problems with one solution is a no brainer and that the closed minds and dog in the manger attitude of a misinformed minority can prevent it from happening