Almost €200,000 has been made available to promote the environmental protection and economic development of the midwest region’s principal waterways.
The Mid-West Regional Authority has been allocated €192,000 under an EU-funded programme to develop areas including Lough Derg, the Clare coastline, the river Shannon and the Shannon estuary.
The authority has been tasked with developing a regional policy aimed at ensuring the future planning and development of rivers and waters in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary are compliant with the water framework directive.
The objectives of the EU directive are to protect all high-status waters, prevent further deterioration of all waters and to restore degraded surface and ground waters to good status by 2015.
Under the terms of the EU-funded Territories of Rivers Action Plans project, the authority will work with authorities in seven other European countries, exchanging information on best practices in landscape protection, management and planning.
Several agencies are currently involved in the management of river territories in the midwest, including local authorities, the Environmental Protection Agency, Waterways Ireland, the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, the ESB, the Office of Public Works and the Shannon-Foynes Port Company.