Emerald Isle still green on environment - Water pollution

SINCE generations of Irish holiday-goers have spent what passed as summer literally swimming in water polluted by excrement, it is shocking to learn from yet another damning report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that 45 urban areas continue to discharge untreated sewage into water courses and coastal areas around Ireland.

Because the 2014 water results relate exclusively to urban areas, the usual suspects, farmers, certainly can’t be blamed for this nationwide pollution crisis, even though, as the sight of dead trout in a murky stream will testify, rogue farmers continue to allow slurry drain into water courses.

In this case, however, there can be no doubt who the culprit is. The report shows that 31 of the country’s larger towns and cities, including Dublin, are still failing to meet EU standards. That’s unforgivable in a nation which depends so heavily on tourism to prop up its ailing economy.