Show us the proof before blaming farmers for water pollution

FARMERS took another bashing over the past week after the release of the latest Environmental Protection Agency report on water quality.

Yes, some farmers are contributors to water quality problems, but the majority have put their pollution controls in order, at substantial cost, over and above any EU or state support which they received. Yet the impression is being given that if the country was rid of farm slurry and fertilisers, water quality problems would be solved.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and the latest report shows that sources outside of farming continue to be among major contributors to water contamination. It is time that there was more specific identification and publication of the defined sources of poor water quality. Let the farmers have the scientific evidence which would show how much they are to blame. But it is time to stop the glossing over of other possible serious sources of contamination of water by using farmers as the scapegoats every time a report is presented.