Former minister Mary O'Rourke has warned Dublin City Council to take their "hands off our water" over a proposal to build a pipeline to extract water from the Shannon and Lough Ree to supply the capital.
Athlone-based Ms O'Rourke claimed the authorities would "ditch" the low-lying meadows around the town, which were special areas of conservation, "in favour of this rape of our waters", and would "leave us in an arid desert-like situation".
Minister of State for the Environment Tony Killeen said however that the proposal was one of a number of options from a study of long-term water needs for the greater Dublin area and "it is no more than that, a study option, and there is no related infrastructural proposal before the department for consideration or approval".
He added however that the study had concluded that "only two options, the Shannon or a desalination plant could technically meet" the requirement for an extra 300 million litres of water daily for the Dublin area by 2031.
Raising the issue on the adjournment of the Dáil, Ms O'Rourke (FF, Longford-Westmeath) said "the constant leakage of the Dublin waters . . . is not going to be corrected and yet they're going to, in cavalier fashion, take our water from us".
This would take away the region's source of tourism and its heritage, she believed. "The low-lying meadows around Athlone are special areas of conservation and yet they're willing to be apparently going to be ditched in favour of this rape our water."
She alleged that alternative sources of water supply "have been dismissed, including desalination, on the grounds that it would involve too high an energy cost. She said it was successfully used in other countries.
The proposal would affect counties Clare, Tipperary, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath, "but the main extraction will be from the Shannon area around Athlone and into Lough Ree."
In an angry outburst she said: "Dublin has everything . . . now they are going to take our water and leave us in an arid desert-like situation, which is what it will be." She added: "I would like to say to the Dublin City Council . . . 'hands off our water'! We need it for our own purposes."
She said there was a very large aquafer (water source) which was a viable option but "the largest dump in Europe" was going to be built right on top of the aquafer's source.
