Part of Tipperary’s Lough Derg shore line.
Dublin City Council’s plans, to remove over 500 million litres of water on a daily basis from Lough Derg here in North Tipperary could leave Ireland open to an EU legal challenge. This follows a recent European Court of Justice ruling against Greece, Mayo Fine Gael MEP Mr Jim Higgins has warned.
To remind Tipperary readers, this proposed plan is to extract water from Lough Derg, the largest of 3 lakes on the River Shannon, at the rate of 350 – 500 million litres per day, via a reservoir and treatment plant, to be possibly situated near Portarlington.
The River Shannon Protection Alliance (SPA) claim that Dublin City Council’s highly controversial plan to pipe this water from Lough Derg, to address leaking Victorian pipes in Dublin by 2020, is in breach of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Mr Higgins revealed earlier this month that the European Court of Justice has already ruled that Greece was in breach of European Union law when it failed to protect the waters of Lake Koroneia, latter’s water which were illegally abstracted for irrigation purposes.
The SPA & Mr Higgins are opposed to the Dublin City Council’s proposal on the grounds of a possible negative environmental impact that any such abstraction might have on the lake. The SPA are now seriously considering lodging an objection against this plan, to the European Union Petitions’ Committee, which could pose further difficulties with regard to Dublin City Council’s future plans.
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby.
Water, Water, Water. We will have to pay for water coming into the house (Water Charges) and we have to pay for the same water leaving the house, (Septic Tank Charge). What’s next?. (I won’t say yet.)