A BRANCH of the Shannon Protection Alliance has been established in Limerick in an effort to prevent millions of litres of water being extracted from the Shannon river to boost dwindling supplies in the greater Dublin area.
The controversial plans by Dublin City Council would see water extracted at a rate of 500 million litres per day from an extraction point at Terryglass at the top of Lough Derg.
According to the Shannon Protection Alliance, this equates roughly to the amount of water that currently leaks from the Dublin water delivery system.
The group has urged Dublin City Council to fix water leaks and conserve water instead of “plundering” the Shannon which supplies 1.5 million people living along its catchment area.
The newly formed Limerick branch of the alliance says it has joined forces with other branches, in Athlone (Lough Ree) and Dromineer (Lough Derg), to form a united front in opposing the proposals on ecological, environmental, commercial, recreational, and social grounds.
Speaking at the Hunt Museum in Limerick yesterday, alliance press officer PJ Walsh said the Dublin plan contravened the EU water framework directive because of the lack of consultation and failure to address any adverse effects.
He said if the proposal were to proceed it would spell the end of all planning and development in towns and villages situated on the Shannon, such as Carrick-on-Shannon, Roosky, Lanesboro, Newtowncashel, Athlone and Limerick.
He also claimed that Dublin City Council had no traditional legal or riparian right to decree itself a major primary stakeholder of the Shannon.
“Large-scale water abstraction increases the increase of bluegreen algae blooms, a known carcinogenic. Do we need to increase the risk of cancer incidence in the Shannon basin?” he asked.
“Immediate drops in water levels throughout the Shannon catchment area will bring about the swift total and irreversible demise of tourism, leisure activities, angling, agriculture, hotel and accommodation interests, and the destruction of the Shannon’s fragile ecology will be damaged to such an extent that it will never recover, even if the water abstraction were to be discontinued,” he added.
Mr Walsh also said there was no fall-back strategy should the alliance’s worst fears be realised.
“Dublin City Council has refused to concede a shutdown of the pipeline if the damage to our Shannon becomes apparent.
“Can you cut off the water supply to more than one million people?”
The alliance’s Limerick branch spokesman, Gerry Siney, said Dublin City Council had “completely ignored” the interests of people in the local region.
He said the local authority could solve its water supply needs without recourse to Shannon waters and claimed insufficient consideration had been given to water conservation, groundwater abstraction, desalination, water metering, rain water harvesting, and the use of grey water.
“In assessing the potential for negative effects at various points along the course of the river, Dublin City Council has completely ignored the people and interests of the Limerick area. They have effectively said that Limerick doesn’t matter,” he said.
Dublin City Council has said it will create an “eco water park and reservoir” in the midlands as part of its plan to pump water from the Shannon to serve the capital’s drinking-water needs for the next 70 years.
It says the project would also supply water to residents and businesses in counties Meath, Wicklow, Kildare, Offaly and Westmeath and would create 1,000 construction jobs.
It also says water would be taken from the Shannon during periods of flood and high flows only.