€5.4bn plan to clean up water

EVERY region with a population of more than 1,000 people will be provided with a waste water treatment plant under a new Government programme announced yesterday.

The ambitious €5.4bn scheme, to be funded by the National Development Plan, will see more than 700 water and sewage schemes completed around the country before 2005.

Launching the scheme yesterday, Environment Minister Martin Cullen promised that Cork, Limerick, Galway and Wexford will all have new waste water treatment plants operational by the end of the year.