'When the river is high, you can't use the toilet': Limerick village struggling with sewage problems

Locals report observing toilet paper and sanitary products in the river. Stock Image. 

Limerick County Council has not applied for funding to fix a sewage problem in Kilbehenny village, despite national funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage being available under a scheme for unsewered villages.

Limerick County Councillors told the Irish Examiner that it would be “unsustainable” for the local authority to put up 15% of the cost of installing a wastewater treatment plant for such a small village.

Raw sewage from the majority of houses in the village, which is in the South East of Limerick in the foothills of the Galtee Mountains, flows through a combined wastewater and stormwater pipe system that is at least 100 years old and ends up in the River Funchion, a tributary of the Blackwater.

Locals report observing toilet paper and sanitary products in the river, with one commenter saying that “when the river is high you can’t use the toilet in the local pub.” 

“We want a commitment to say, this is what going to happen in Kilbehenny,” Maurice Walsh, chairman of a local action group formed to tackle the sewage problem, told a public meeting held in Kilbehenny Community Hall on Friday.

“This village is dying as a result of no development. You won’t get planning in this village to build because the council will tell you there’s no sewerage system.” But the local authority has not applied for a national fund to build new waste water treatment facilities in unsewered villages, it emerged at the meeting.

Independent TD Richard O'Donoghue. Photo: Sam Boal /Rollingnews.ie

Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue told the meeting that he had spoken to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, who “never heard anything” about Kilbehenny, and that Limerick County Council had made no submissions to the scheme, which was first announced in April 2022.

Kilbehenny is one of 547 villages in the country that have no wastewater treatment system, a 2021 local authority survey revealed. A national attempt at cleaning up the problem is underway, with national government funding 85% of the cost of new systems.

“Limerick County Council haven’t made any submissions for any system in Co Limerick,” Mr O’Donoghue told the meeting.

“You have to have the infrastructure to get the schools, to get the houses and the businesses,” he said. “How can we have that if our own local authority hasn’t made a submission?” 

However Cllr Ger Mitchell told the Irish Examiner that it would be “unsustainable” for Limerick County Council to have to put up 15% of the cost of a new wastewater treatment system for the small village.

“There’s a really small number of houses and it’s unsustainable for the local authority to give 15% of the overall when it could be costing millions,” Cllr Mitchell said. “It will cost too much. You’re talking €100,000 or €200,000. This should be fully funded.” 

Further complications have arisen over whether responsibility lies with the local authority or with Uisce Éireann as the transfer of remaining local authority water staff to the national water body continues under a service level agreement that means all waste water treatment systems fall under the remit of Uisce Éireann.

Uisce Éireann sent a letter to local councillor PJ Carey saying that because Kilbeheny didn’t have a waste water treatment system in place.

“As there is no public wastewater infrastructure in Kilbeheny village, Uisce Éireann currently has no remit in the area,” the letter said.