The largest engineering project of its type ever undertaken in this country will start shortly in Cork's lower harbour.

Work on an underwater sewage pipe crossing Cork’s lower harbour will start this year as part of a €117m project to end the daily discharge of thousands of tonnes of raw sewage into the sea.

Work started this week on a multi-million euro sewage project to end the daily discharge into Cork Harbour of 20 tonnes of raw sewage — the equivalent of three Olympic-size swimming pools.