Group to oppose Shannon water supply for Dublin

A group set up to protect the River Shannon has said it will “strongly oppose” any move to divert the river to Dublin to cater for anticipated water supply shortages in the capital.

An Irish Water report, published last week, sets out the pressing need for a new water supply source for the east and midlands regions of the country.

The report identifies a projected demand for water in Dublin, alone, will increase by over 50%, by 2050.

The report states Dublin “is well beyond the capacity of the existing sources which serve the region”.

However, the River Shannon Protection Alliance said in a statement that it “wishes to make it clear that any such proposal will face the strongest opposition to such needless, high risk, and outmoded infrastructural planning”.

The group said the proposal to divert the water to Dublin would extract water at a rate of hundreds of millions of litres per day.

“There can be no doubt rates of abstraction will increase exponentially year on year, with disastrous consequences economically, environmentally, and socially for all of the communities along the full length of the Shannon,” the alliance said.

“Dublin does not now have a shortage of water, and it need not do so in the future. Current supplies are more than adequate for current demand.

“However, Dublin City Council has been throwing half of it away through years of leak-ridden supply pipes and creaking treatment facilities, all of which have suffered from decades of neglect and under-investment.”

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