Regional Water Resources Plan sets out long term options for providing more secure and sustainable water supplies in the South East Region
20 September 2023 – Uisce Éireann wishes to remind everyone that it is running a public consultation on the draft Regional Water Resource Plan – South East. The final date for making submissions to the plan is 3 October 2023.
The plan sets out options for providing a more secure, reliable and sustainable water supply for 369,240 customers in the South East region over the next 25 years. The region covers approximately 9,200 square kilometres, encompassing counties Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow, and Wexford.
Uisce Éireann’s National Water Resources Plan (NWRP) will be the first resources plan for the entire public water supply in Ireland. The NWRP will identify the needs across our existing supplies and the challenges and opportunities that we face over the coming years including legislation, climate change, the environment, growth and economic development. The NWRP will allow us to understand the actions and activities required to transform our water supplies and provide a safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable water supply for our current and future customers. The NWRP will also provide a transparent roadmap on how Uisce Éireann will plan for its water assets to align with national policy.
Given the scale of the area to be covered, the NWRP is being rolled out in two phases. The NWRP Framework Plan was first adopted in the summer of 2021 and Uisce Éireann has since moved into Phase 2 and is preparing four Regional Water Resources Plans.
The four regions are:
- Regional Water Resources Plan: North West
- Regional Water Resources Plan: South West
- Regional Water Resources Plan: South East
- Regional Water Resources Plan: Eastern and Midlands
Each Regional Plan is subject to its own consultation and, once adopted, all of the Regional Plans and the Framework Plan will be treated as a unified National Plan.
The draft RWRP-SE describes the South East Region and the current challenges faced now and into the future in terms of delivering a safe, secure and resilient water supply. It identifies progress made to date, for instance through leakage reductions, capital investment works, and works in progress. It applies the methodology as adopted in the Framework Plan to (i) identify the Need across the 111 Water Resource Zones, in terms of quality, quantity, reliability and sustainability of supply, and (ii) identify Plan-level solutions to meet this Need across the region.
There are 143 Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) in the South East Region, which collectively serve 369,240 people or 9% of the population of Ireland and 29,700 businesses via approximately 17,730 kilometres of distribution network. Speaking on the public consultation, Mairéad Conlon, Regional Water Resources Strategy Lead for Uisce Éireann said, “We wish to remind everyone that the public consultation on the draft Regional Wate Resource Plan for the South East region is running until 3 October 2023. We wish to encourage everyone to make a submission on the draft plan. The development of a draft plan on how Uisce Éireann will supply water across the South East region is an important step. It will allow Uisce Éireann to review water supply needs across the region and consider local options to resolve these needs.”
“The draft Regional Plan will offer key benefits in terms of transformation of our supplies, including the ability to cater for growth and economic development in a sustainable way, through improved interconnectivity between our supplies to ensure balanced regional development and new sustainable water sources that are adaptable to climate change.
“The draft plan sets out how we envisage water will be supplied to homes and businesses across counties Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow and Wexford over the next 25 years. Our team hopes to meet as many people as possible and hear from them about their local areas, to ensure that our plan is the best fit for the South East region,” explained Mairéad.
Uisce Éireann is now seeking feedback on the public consultation for the draft RWRP-SE and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement (NIS). The documents are available to view on our website at https://www.water.ie/projects/strategic-plans/national-water-resources/rwrp/south-east/.
A 12-week statutory public consultation got underway on 11 July and will run until 3 October 2023.
Submissions can be made by post or email by 3 October 2023 to:
Email: nwrp@water.ie
Post: National Water Resources Plan, Uisce Éireann, PO Box 13216, Glenageary, Co. Dublin This public consultation provides everyone with the opportunity to feed into the process of how Uisce Éireann identifies the water supply issues in the region and determines what the options are to provide a more resilient water supply to customers within the region.
Uisce Éireann is also seeking feedback on how it will develop options to address any problems identified.
All submissions will be taken into consideration and responses to the issues raised will be summarised in a Consultation Report, which will be published on www.water.ie/nwrp.
