Green agency slams Irish Water progress on ending raw sewage discharges

The Irish Republic's green regulator has criticised Irish Water for delays in delivering new and improved wastewater infrastructure and its failure to end raw sewage discharges as quickly as it had promised.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s latest report on the country’s urban waste water treatment. highlighted that raw sewage was likely to remain a problem in 33 areas until after 2021. The agency acknowledged that Irish Water had made some progress in the past 12 months but complained it was too little and too slow.

“The growing uncertainty in Irish Water’s planning and delivery of critical projects is undermining confidence in its capacity to reduce the risks to public health and the environment in a timely manner,” said the agency’s head of environmental enforcement, Dr Tom Ryan.

The water company insisted it was “making real and tangible progress working with local communities to deliver critical infrastructure which has suffered from years of historic underinvestment”. However, in a statement it accepted that “progress across a portfolio of projects has been slower than anticipated as we deal with an unprecedented level of statutory and planning issues.“

The company listed consultation requirements, protracted planning and approval issues and land acquisition problems that meant an increase in compulsory purchase orders.