Public consultation continues on draft Regional Water Resource Plan – South West

Uisce Éireann's three-month public consultation on the draft Regional Water Resource Plan - South West (RWRP-SW) will continue until 24 August 2022. The plan sets out options for providing a more secure, reliable and sustainable water supply for 594,000 customers in the South West region over the next 25 years.

Public webinars are taking place next week and there are both morning and evening webinars scheduled. If you're interested in finding out how Uisce Éireann plans to supply water to your area over the next 25 years, sign up to join a public webinar event, to meet our team and hear about their work. You'll find more information on webinar times and how to sign up here: https://www.water.ie/rwrp/southwest.

The draft RWRP-SW describes the South West Region and the current challenges faced now and into the future in terms of delivering a safe, secure and resilient water supply. There are 227 Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) in the South West Region, which collectively serve 594,400 people or 14% of the population of Ireland, via approximately 7,923 kilometres of distribution network and 174 Water Resource Zones. These treatment plants also serve 45,000 businesses. The region itself covers approximately 13,000 square kilometres, extending from the southern tip of the Iveragh Peninsula in the south-west of County Kerry, north to the Shannon Estuary, and south-east where it meets the Celtic Sea at Youghal in County Cork.

Speaking about the public consultation, Angela Ryan, Water Resource Strategy Lead for Uisce Éireann said, 'The development of a draft plan on how Uisce Éireann will supply water across the South West region is an important step. It will offer key benefits in terms of transformation of our supplies, including the ability to cater for growth and economic development in a sustainable way, improved interconnectivity between our supplies to ensure balanced regional development, and new sustainable water sources that are adaptable to climate change.

'The draft plan sets out how we envisage water will be supplied to homes and businesses across Cork, Kerry and parts of Limerick and Waterford over the next 25 years. Our team hopes to meet as many people as possible and hear from them about their local areas, to ensure that our plan is the best fit for the South West region. Our public webinars will take place next week and our team will be on hand to talk about our work, answer questions to help those who wish to send us feedback.' explained Angela. 

Uisce Éireann are now seeking feedback on the public consultation for the draft RWRP- SW and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement, the documents are available to view on our website at www.water.ie/rwrp/southwest. 

The ongoing 12-week statutory public consultation will run until 24 August 2022. Submissions can be made by post or email by 24 August 2022.

Email: nwrp@water.ie

Post: National Water Resources Plan, Uisce Éireann, PO Box 13216, Glenageary, Co. Dublin 

This public consultation is everyone's opportunity to feed into the process of how Uisce Éireann identifies the water supply issues in the region and determines what the options are to provide a more resilient water supply to customers within the region. 

Public webinars will take place next week. These webinars will provide information on the draft Regional Water Resources Plan South West and allow opportunities to pose questions to our team. If you would like to be part of an online public webinar on the draft Regional Water Resources Plan South West and associated environmental reports, you can provide an expression of interest on our website at www.water.ie/rwrp/southwest.

All submissions will be taken into consideration and responses to the issues raised will be summarised in a Consultation Report, which will be published on www.water.ie/nwrp.