Lovers of the outdoor life will be depressed - but hardly surprised - by the decision of North Tipperary County Council to prohibit swimming in the waters of Lough Derg. The closure of what is perhaps the Shannon's loveliest expanse of open water is now almost a fixed part of the Irish summer. It is a sadness and a shame.
It is surely telling that children will swim this summer in the waters of French, Italian or Austrian lakes - but that they run the risk of skin rashes and perhaps worse if they bathe in the fabled Shannon. Even now, European and American visitors, albeit in smaller numbers than we would wish, are holidaying on pleasure craft on our inland waterways. They are attracted here by images of placid waters, green, leafy countryside and a benign environment. Nobody told them when they decided to come here that if they chose to cool off by swimming from the deck at beautiful Dromineer or Garrykennedy they would be hazarding their health.
The pollution of Lough Derg is caused by eutrophication. Agricultural fertilisers run off the land, carried principally by rainwater into the lake. The lake is "enriched" and a green-blue algae is formed. It looks ugly and while it carries no lethal threat to humans it is dangerous to health. This pollution is but one example of the wider environmental issue described earlier this week in the Government's Sustainable Development Review.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has promised that he will be vigorous in pursuit of the aims of the Review. In regard to agricultural pollution of the kind affecting Lough Derg that posits a two-pronged approach: education and enforcement. Much good work has been done, with the active support of the farmers' organisations, to spread the message. An impressive 89 per cent of the farmers around Lough Derg have responded to the first phase of the local council's scheme to restore the water quality. But even a handful of people, if they are sufficiently reckless and if their properties are within the drainage area, can wreak havoc. In such cases, rigid enforcement, to the full limits of the law, is the only solution.