Councillor calls for single agency to deal with flood threat on waterways

A MEMBER of Limerick County Council who played a major role in the huge flooding clean-up in Newcastle West more than 18 months ago has called for a single agency to be set up to maintain the country’s rivers and streams.

Cllr Patrick O’Donovan (FG) said that the Government should transfer control of the country’s waterways to a single agency who would be accountable to the local authorities, and whose primary role would be the maintenance of rivers and streams so as to reduce possible flooding.

“We have seen in west Limerick in August 2008 and across the west and south of Ireland this November that there really is no one taking the issue of drainage and river maintenance seriously and this was a major factor in the flooding that devastated so many properties across the country,” he said.

“We also know that far too many vested interests have a say in the management of our waterways and the Government should intervene to ensure that the primary interest is the protection of life and property.”

Cllr O’Donovan said that failure to carry out meaningful maintenance on the Shannon and decades of neglect was putting Limerick city and county at risk.

“This is going to have an impact on those rivers and streams that feed the Shannon,” he said.

“Several statutory boards and semi-state companies manage the Shannon and its tributaries and it is clear there is absolutely no joined up thinking when it comes to river maintenance.”

He highlighted the situation in the Gale River in Athea which burst its banks in 2008 primarily because of a failure to remove silt and debris which had built up on the river bed over many years.

“The county council was prevented from removing silt from the river at the time because of its spawning potential... This is the type of vested interest which I am talking about,” he said.

“Our waterways need to be treated like our roads, they need to be inspected, repaired and monitored regularly or we will continue to have instances of avoidable flooding occurring.”