IRELAND WILL need a 10-fold increase in spending on water services to deal with the major changes in climate expected over the next 30 years, an engineering conference in Dublin was told.
The conference at Dublin Castle, hosted by the Irish Academy of Engineers, discussed the EPA’s latest report on climate change, which predicts that winter rainfall will increase by 10 per cent by 2050, with a corresponding decrease in summer precipitation of between 12 and 17 per cent.
Storms and flooding would put the existence of some towns at risk. Without remedial action, it could lead to catastrophic consequences, the academy’s president Michael Hayden said.
Some €1 billion has been earmarked for spending on water infrastructure but this will have to increase to €10 billion, the conference heard. This investment would need to be in place within the next 15 years.
Dublin city engineer Michael Phillips said the implication of the report is that water would fall more copiously in places where it was not needed.
“There will be a need to transfer water to where it is needed. It can be done, for example, by taking water from the Shannon to Dublin . . . We will have to store water that falls during the winter so that we can use it in summer,” said Mr Phillips.
On the issue of water charges, Mr Phillips said an education programme was needed to encourage people to “recognise how precious a commodity water is”.
The academy is expected to present a report from the conference to the Government and to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Mr Hayden said an increase in heavy rainfall causing floods would be a concern for Ireland, as would periods of drought.
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