Upgrade water treatment plants, warn experts

THREE major treatment plants which provide water to more than 500,000 people need to be modernised to secure supplies, environmental experts warn.

The Lee Road facility, on a flood plain in Cork, must be moved to higher ground; an unstable 150-year-old tunnel from the Vartry reservoir in the Wicklow mountains should be replaced; and the Staleen plant in Co Meath needs to be overhauled.

The Environmental Prot-ection Agency (EPA) named the three sites on a remedial action list that plans works for 240 facilities.