Water and sewerage projects costing a total of £185 million will be initiated this year, the Minister for the Environment has announced. Mr Dempsey said the programme indicated Ireland was ensuring a "dramatic improvement" in its water and sewerage services by maximising the use of EU supporting capital.In addition to 61 new water and sewerage schemes (with a final cost of £470 million) starting in 1998, a further 61 schemes will continue construction and 81 will be advanced through planning.Among the projects to start are: Dublin Bay project, costing more than £200 million, to ensure secondary sewage treatment for Dublin with a new sewage treatment works at Ringsend; a pumping station in Sutton and sludge treatment facilities in advance of cessation of sewage sludge dumping at sea;Osberstown sewerage scheme (costing £21 million) to serve much of north Co Kildare, which has undergone widespread urbanisation and to protect the river Liffey; a £28 million programme to improve rural water supplies, with £5 million to open up land for development by providing water/sewerage services;a water-conservation initiative to prevent leakages in urban areas, costing £47 million, the bulk of which will be spent in Dublin; the first phase of Limerick main drainage scheme costed at £63 million; major new sewerage works including phosphorus waste-reduction facilities at Athlone, Portumna, Ballinasloe, Nenagh and Roscrea, costing £26 million.In the presence of the EU cohesion fund director, Mr Jean-Francois Verstrynge, Mr Dempsey warned that Ireland would need further significant structural and Cohesion Fund support after current funding ended in 1999. It would need to spend £1.3 billion up to 2005 to ensure it meets the demands of the EU's urban waste water directive.The 1998 programme allocates £45 million for the controversial sewage-treatment plant to serve Galway city at Mutton Island, which is the subject of a Supreme Court appeal by environmental interests. Significantly, Mr Verstrynge said the Commission, which has expressed environmental reservations about its location, "will not finance it".Mr Dempsey, however, stressed that the EU Commission had fully endorsed the Department's approach to water and sewerage projects, which are receiving £540 million in Cohesion Funds over five years up to 1999.With the help of completed projects, the quality of public water supplies was considered fundamentally good. He added: "We are making good progress in providing secondary treatment of waste water to the areas which require it by 2000. We are actively addressing problems with lake and river water quality through a comprehensive catchment management strategy."A new emphasis was on setting environmental quality standards for rivers and lakes, providing appropriate waste-water treatment and a range of initiatives including reducing inputs of phosphorous wastes. "Monitoring systems are being put in place to ensure the targets set are achieved and that integrated water-quality management plans are development for individual catchments."Lough Derg and Lough Ree had become models for this new strategy. Within a short time its introduction had coincided with improvements in water quality.This approach was to be extended, Mr Dempsey said, to the Boyne, Suir and Liffey rivers and to Lough Leane in Killarney. "Modern practices and economicdevelopment pose a growing environmental threat and, in order to meet this challenge, we have to find new ways to address these problems. This means a move away from the scheme-by-scheme approach to an integrated water-quality management approach."
