€2.4bn plan to upgrade urban sewerage systems

An ambitious programme to upgrade urban sewerage systems and eliminate discharges of sewage to sensitive waters has been launched by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche.

The State's first National Urban Waste Water Study found that up to three years ago, almost half of the Republic's sewage plants discharged to environmentally sensitive waters, and 43 per cent of all sewage went effectively untreated.

Mr Roche yesterday detailed spending of €2.4 billion on waste water treatment plants and sewer replacements which he said had already increased compliance with European standards from just 25 percent in 2000 to 90 per cent at the end of 2004.

He said that the Government was addressing an underfunding situation in relation to waste water but he said "full 100 per cent compliance" with the EU Waste Water Directive would be possible in a few years.

The study recommended constant monitoring of receiving waters in the catchment areas of sewerage systems and work to upgrade town treatment systems is expected to lead to improvements in water quality.

The study also required local authorities to audit their waste water facilities for the first time and provide a breakdown of required future capacity. Mr Roche said many local authority urban sewerage systems had been put in "over hundreds of years" and maps had not been kept showing where pipes lay.

The new study, which includes a county-by-county inventory of such services, will also be useful in informing county development plans on where capacity exists or is planned in local treatment plants. This will, in turn, assisting in the designation of land for development.

As regards the level of treatment, Mr Roche said it was planned to provide secondary treatment for all population centres with a population in excess of 1,000. Under the water services Bill currently before the Oireachtas, each sanitary authority will be required to make a strategic water services plan every six years.

However, Mr Roche said he intended to amend the Bill at the committee stage to make the drawing up of the strategic plan a reserved function of the elected members, rather than an executive function as currently indicated.

He also said he was concerned that flood relief schemes and waste water treatment plants be properly managed if they were to be integrated. He instanced Arklow, Co Wicklow, as one example where flooding in low-lying homes did have a back flow in their sewerage systems, given specific conditions. This was being addressed, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Roche said he hoped that work was advanced on treating the smells which emerge from the new Dublin treatment plant in Ringsend. He said he was aware that it was a serious problem in the area and he had been told that the issue was being dealt with. "It will be cleared up."