Sir, – It is with a sense of despair that I learn of Irish Water's plan to take water from the Shannon to pipe to Dublin and the colossal cost economically, environmentally and ethically ("Consultation opens on Irish Water plans to supply 2.5 million people", News, December 14th).
Infrastructure for the project will be expensive and there will also be costs involved in mitigating the resultant damage to the environment. It will then cost even more to bring the water to drinking water standards, what with all the pumping, filtering, treating and testing and eventual distribution. There will also be the “carbon” cost of the project, from the energy used in the construction and then the ongoing running and maintenance of the system.
And all this so that Dublin can flush its toilets.
HG Wells wrote in 1897 in his short story A Story of the Days to Come that “the world had long since abandoned the folly of pouring drinkable water into its sewers”.
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I know of no one in Ireland that thinks it does not rain enough.
Isn’t it about time we harvested rainwater for those tasks that do not require very, very expensively produced potable water? – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY MORAN,
Bundoran,
Co Donegal.