Water treatment plants need upgrade

Three major treatment plants which provide water to more than half a million people need to be modernised to secure supplies, environmental experts have warned.

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