The announcement of a water and sewerage treatment programme costing £185m in 1998 is a welcome development and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey is to be complimented on his determination and energy in maximising the use of EU supporting capital. The size of the investment in a single year reflects the magnitude and the urgency of the water pollution problems facing the country.
But the projects itemised by the Minister only deal with one aspect of the matter. The fragmentation of responsibility for safeguarding water quality between Fishery Boards, the Department of the Marine, the Office of Public Works, local authorities and the Department of the Environment has allowed a gradual deterioration in its purity until, at this stage, low-level water pollution is endemic and the fish stocks in many major lakes and rivers have been irreparably damaged. It has been estimated that farming practices now account for 46 per cent of general water pollution and for 80 per cent of phosphate enrichment. In the Lee valley, in Co Cork, phosphate content in the soil can be four times the optimum level because of excessive fertiliser use. As a consequence, the water runs green in summer, fish die and the cost of making the water safe for human consumption becomes more expensive. In such cases - and if the current farming education programme proves ineffective - a phosphate /fertilizer tax should be introduced by the Government.
The fanfare of publicity surrounding the Minister's announcement reflects the European funding dimension of the water and sewerage treatment programme. The list of projects represents a new emphasis on delivering integrated water-quality management plans for individual catchment areas. The main beneficiaries of the current programme are the Liffey/Dublin Bay catchment and the Shannon Basin. This coherent approach has drawn warm approval from the European Commission. And maximum funding from Cohesion Funds may be provided for such projects, even after a reduction in Structural Funding takes effect in 1999. Mr Dempsey has estimated that the cost of meeting the EU's urban waste water directive will run to £1,300m by the year 2005. And up to 80 per cent of that cost could be recovered from the Cohesion Fund.
Negotiations on the establishment of a Framework Directive on Water Quality are due to be concluded between member-states within the next 12 months. The European Commission is anxious to ensure the principle that those who use or pollute natural resources must pay the full economic cost. In that regard, the director of the EU Cohesion Fund, Mr Jean-Francois Verstrynge, has said that Ireland may be forced to reintroduce domestic water charges under the Framework Directive. Water charges were the only way the State could mobilise sufficent private capital to continue the job of water quality protection that the EU had started, he said. That contention remains to be tested. The last government opted for a general taxation approach to pay for water services and to roll back that decision would seem to infringe the EU's general line on "subsidiarity". As of now, the Coalition Government takes the view that water charges will not be reintroduced because of their political history.