Warning over Irish Water plans to pump water from Shannon

Plans by Irish Water to pump more than 300 million litres of water a day from the Parteen Basin near Limerick would sound the "death knell of the Shannon region" a group set up to protect Ireland's longest river has warned.

Gerry Siney, chairman of the River Shannon Protection Alliance, has described the latest plans to deal with water shortages in Dublin as "even more frightening" than previous options, which included taking water from Lough Ree and Lough Derg.

“It is no exaggeration to say it would spell the death knell of the Shannon as we now know it. The river cannot take that kind of strain,” he warned. If approved Irish Water’s plan would cost between €700 million and €900 million.

Pipeline

The latest proposal involves taking 2 per cent of the river’s water from the lower Shannon at Parteen Basin, close to the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station in Co Clare. The water would be pumped across a 165km pipeline to provide a new supply for Dublin and other counties along the route.

“These latest plans pose massive risks to the environment along the Shannon. We would be facing an ecological as well as an economic disaster for over one million people who live and work along the Shannon catchment area,” Mr Siney said.

Brendan Russell, who was chairman of the Lough Derg working group, and a regional manager at Bord Fáilte and manager of tourism development at Shannon Development, said there should be serious public debate about the proposal. "Every local community on the Shannon has got to get out and start talking about it and the Shannon and Lough Derg must be on the Cabinet agenda."