Sea-change needed for cleaner water

WITH most of the spotlight on the restoration of water supplies, following damage done during the freezing spell, it would be easy to overlook a paramount issue — the quality of the water we drink each day.

A key challenge, which has yet to be treated with the urgency it deserves, is to ensure the water we drink is safe and free from pollution.

A recent ESRI report found most households in Ireland have been supplied with contaminated water which was not up EU standards. Pollution in sources of supply, such as rivers, lakes and bore wells, has deteriorated in recent years and the situation was graphically highlighted by the cryptosporidium outbreak, in Galway, in 2007.

Some of the notable advances in public health and control of infectious diseases globally in the 20th century can be attributed, to a large extent, to improved water quality and sanitation. And to show how things can go wrong, we need only look at Haiti, which has a cholera outbreak, whilst we have constant reminders about how contaminated water can lead to epidemics in continents such as Africa. The National Federation of Group Water Schemes (NFGWS) has now made a timely call for action to protect water sources, backed up by the results of a pilot project on a lake in Co Monaghan, which probably reflects the situation nationally.

In a nutshell, the project shows current farming practices are by far the biggest problem, with human waste posing a significant source of extra pollution.

Changing behaviour is the answer, whether through education, persuasion, or incentives. If all that fails, the last option would be to rely on the State to enforce regulations to protect supplies and people’s health.

A guide to good farming practices is hardly enough and the NFGWS says an alternative strategy may be needed to protect water sources and, at the same time, the livelihoods of farm families.

“This may mean a move away from intensive agricultural production in parts of the country where the environment simply can’t sustain it,” the federation states.

But another way of doing things could be through an integrated constructed wetland (ICW) solution to sewage treatment, rather than conventional treatment works. A pilot scheme in Glaslough village, Co Monaghan, is proving an ICW can be successful.

The latest issue of Rural Water News is largely devoted to the protection of water sources, with an editorial suggesting we should be looking at low-tech and low-cost solutions, such as ICW, to dealing with agricultural and human wastes. It’s a system that can be used on individual farms and households, involving the use of some productive land, or part of a garden, but “it may be the only realistic means of protecting water bodies while (people can continue) living and working in rural Ireland”.

The pilot project on Milltown Lake, in Co Monaghan, the water source for a group scheme, involved a study into historic pollution of the lake and showed agriculture was by far the main driver of nutrient loading. The report calls for a fundamental shift in dealing with source contamination, stressing that it is all controlled by human activity.

Since October 2007, the system in Glaslough has been treating wastewater, including sewage, produced by about 800 people, a hotel, restaurant and equestrian centre. Its five, inter-connected ponds have the capacity to deal with wastewater produced by double that number of people. Like many places in rural Ireland, Glaslough had a problem with sewage effluent and an existing plant had been polluting a local river.

Monaghan County Council had planned a new, traditional-style treatment plant for Glaslough, but a visit to the Anne Valley, in Co Waterford, by council officials and representatives of the Castle Leslie Estate changed all that. They saw a successful ICW in action and opted for that solution.

A partnership was formed between Monaghan County Council, the Dept of the Environment, Castle Leslie Estate and the University of Edinburgh. Three years after coming into operation, the project has exceeded all expectations and could now be a model for communities all over the country.

Polluted water flows through linked shallow ponds which have a large number of plants to remove nutrients. Due to the slow movement of the polluted water through the ponds, there is plenty of time for digestion of organic matter.

There’s also a big saving in costs. A traditional treatment facility for Glaslough would have cost €1.5 million, but the final bill for the ICW came to €770,000. The ICW offers three times the treatment capacity at half the price, according to Rural Water News.

And it provides more than just treatment of polluted water; it can also support plant and animal life and play a role in easing floods.