Councillors at a Thurles Municipal District Council Meeting on Monday last were calling for ‘a plan’, latter to be drawn up 40 years too late, in an effort to tackle unprecedented flooding in Thurles on Sunday night.
Fianna Fáil Councillors Mr Seamus Hanafin and Mr Sean Ryan; the former confirming that the issue was a 40 year old inheritance problem and blaming Tipperary County Council; while the latter councillor acknowledged that this was the 3rd such incident over the last 18 month period.
As non-red faced Councillors verbally “passed the political buck” yesterday, local dissatisfied residents were seriously asking the question; “What were both above named, paid and elected public representatives doing for the past number of years, while both were members of this same Tipperary County Council, led by Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath?”
The answer of course they already know, same being; “Mostly talking party politics and further destroying Thurles town’s valuable, rich, history, to the detriment of our local tourism industry”.
Meanwhile, according to a recent ‘Press Release’, Irish Water yesterday outlined its investment in water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the Premier County, since 2014.
Surprise, surprise, Thurles is not targeted for future upgrading except under the “Leakage Reduction Programme”, but we learn that between 2014-2019, the utility invested €69m into various projects in Tipperary, with an estimated €65m, once again being ‘pumped’(pardon the pun) into other un-named projects, up until 2024.
[None of which I might add, includes even a sandbag or a sewage blocker, being offered to Thurles town businesses or residents, and OMG, do you think, with local elections occurring in 2024, will the local electorate remember?]
Pending the ‘Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ approval; a further €136m will be also invested beyond 2024.
Speaking after a meeting with Tipperary County Council’s elected representatives yesterday, ‘Operations Lead‘ speaking for Irish Water, Ms Catherine McDonough said; “Irish Water is committed to providing quality water and wastewater services for the people of Tipperary. There is a strategic and targeted approach to infrastructure developments and proper investment is allocated for improving water and wastewater treatment plants, strengthening networks, supporting housing and economic growth, and protecting the environment. All of which are providing a more quality service for now and years to come.
As part of the Leakage Reduction Programme, almost 30km of old and problematic watermains across the county have been replaced in Newport, Kilcommon, Garrykennedy, Ballyglass, Tullakeady, Clonmore, Thurles, Clonmel and Templetouhy; and next year we plan to replace approximately 17km throughout the county.
This year has been challenging so far for certain parts of Tipperary with the warm weather and drought we experienced. This put some water supplies under immense pressure and resulted in some water restrictions, outages, loss of water pressure, and in some cases, Boil Water Notices.
I want to thank the people of Tipperary for playing their part in conserving water throughout the Summer and for having patience while we tried to restore their water supply. We have invested a lot in the local infrastructure to limit the impact this can have. We have accomplished a significant amount with our colleagues in Tipperary County Council over the last number of years, and we have more work to do as we continue providing a quality service for the people of Tipperary “.
Irish Water are also investing €65 million to upgrade and standardise disinfection systems across Ireland. In Tipperary, 21 Water Treatment Plants have had upgrades of their disinfection systems to date and upgrades at the remaining eight plants will be completed by the end of 2023.
The National Water Resources Plan is Irish Water’s plan to identify how we will provide a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable water supply to our customers for now and into the future whilst safeguarding the environment. It will set out how we will balance the supply and demand for drinking water over the short, medium, and long term and ensure we have a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone.
North Tipperary is included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the Eastern and Midlands region – and was recently adopted by IW. The remaining parts of Tipperary will be included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the south-east which will be published for public consultation in 2023.
More limited details on the plan are availableHERE.
Met Eireann issued a ‘Status Orange’ rain warning for five counties last night, to run until midnight tonight, (October 19th).
The counties threatened are Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois and Offaly. The forecaster warned that residents of these counties should expect heavy rain, with the possibility of thundery downpours, which in turn could lead to localised flooding and some disruption.
Following this advice some Thurles business premises and residents, last night, placed sand bags in front of their doors in Friar Street and Cathedral Street, based on their experiences of Sunday night last.
Cathedral Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, October 18th.
Friar Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, October 18th.
At 5:00am this morning, our eye in the sky spotted some flooding beginning to materialise to the rear of Tesco, on Emmett Street in the town, caused possibly by a blocked drain. We base this assumption on the fact that the the River Suir, some three metres away, remains unperturbed by last night’s rainfall.
Emmett Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, October 18th.
Motorists in Co. Tipperary, continue to be advised to slow down and allow a greater braking distance between themselves and the vehicle in front, particularly on high-speed roads such as dual carriageways and motorways.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) have stated that if the road ahead is flooded choose another route, and not to attempt to drive through it. Flooded roads that appear shallow could be deeper than you think. The verge may have subsided and there may also be trees or branches that have fallen that may not be visible.
Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists were similarly warned to take care by wearing bright clothes and high-visibility material.
Note: According to Met Eireann, all Munster GAA post primary schools games, which were scheduled to take place today have now postponed due to this forecast Status Orange rain warning.
Workshop held today (October 18th) between representatives of Irish Water and elected members of Tipperary County Council.
Issue of flooding in Thurles Town high on the agenda.
Today, a ‘Workshop’ was held between representatives from Irish Water and elected members of Tipperary County Council, including Thurles Municipal District officials and engineers, from the Council’s Water Services Section; their business to discuss investment plans for Co. Tipperary.
We are told that high on the agenda was the issue of flooding in Thurles Town, experienced on Sunday night, which occurred following a period of heavy rainfall, which in turn resulted in streets being flooded by water and sewage, to a dept of over 100mm on various streetscapes.
We understand that Thurles Municipal District Council members outlined on our behalf, details of the impact that flooded streets were having on the town and the difficulties being frequently experienced by local businesses and private homes in the areas of Friar Street, west of the town.
Irish Water representatives from the Waste Water Network Asset Planning section confirmed that they were aware of the extent of the issues and confirmed that an analysis of the network had recently been completed and would be expedited.
While we have no details as of yet, with regards to the closed discussions, we understand that our elected representatives were informed that once design options were further advanced, then Irish Water will present all solutions to Tipperary County Council.
As we head into an uncertain winter season and to sum up; there are no real solutions currently in the ‘pipeline‘ (forgive the pun), aimed at presently solving or resolving the flooding problems in Thurles, so probably best to acquire sandbags.
According to some town residents, Thurles may be twinning with Venice shortly; same to be announced by Thurles TD’s, within the next few days.
However, those with properties under water claim that drains are not being cleaned and that engineers have questions to answer regarding drainage brought about by the half-finished upgrading of the Liberty Square town centre.
Cathedral Street, Thurles. October 16th 2022.
Fianna Road, Thurles, October 16th 2022.
Emmett Street, Thurles, October 16th 2022.
Kickham Street, Thurles, October 16th 2022.
Thurles Town Park, Thurles, October 16th 2022.
Garda cars and private cars are being used to halt access into severely flooded streets.
Premises in Friar Street in the town are also severely flooded, with same currently being viewed by two councillors, and Fianna Fáil TD Mr J. Cahill. (You know the latter named; he’s the farmers friend who does not support current notions on “Climate Change” and “Global Warming”).
However, today is only October 16th and one wonders should residents invest in boats, before the real winter season “swings into play”.
No doubt Local Municipal District Councillors and Officials, with red faces, will discuss the issue tomorrow, before washing their hands of the matter; to blame and make demands on Irish Water, who were never involved in any updated installation. [Time to bring former Town Clerk Mr Michael Ryan out of retirement.]
NOTE: Warning was given in August 2022 HERE with video evidence; again in August 2022 HERE, and in February 2022 HERE, by Thurles.Info.
The water quality of our rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas continues to decline, says Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Water quality in Ireland has further declined. While improvements are being made in some areas, these are being offset by declines in water quality elsewhere.
At the current level of progress, Ireland will fail to meet the EU and national goal of restoring all waters to good or better status by 2027.
Only just over half of surface waters (rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters) are in satisfactory condition (that is they are achieving good or high ecological status and are able to sustain healthy ecosystems for fish, insects and plants).
The deterioration in estuaries and coastal waters is mostly along the southeast and southern seaboards and is due to agricultural run-off. Urgent and targeted action is required to reduce nitrogen emissions from agriculture in these areas.
River Suir,Barry’s Bridge, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Suir estuary has lost its good water quality. Thurles.Info first raised this issue with Tipperary politicians, Tipperary County Councillors and the EPA, nine years ago, starting on November 7th, 2013. Our claims were denied. See also Here(April 2019). See Here(July 2018) etc. etc. Instead Tipperary County Councillors, lead by Fianna Fáil Councillor Mr Seamus Hanafin, ignored the river Suir, choosing instead to spread a 3 metre wide strip of tarmacadam on the river bank destroying existing biodiversity and local history.
Domestic Sewage water allowed to flow continuously into River Suir, at Thurles , Co. Tipperary.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published the Water Quality in Ireland Report 2016-2021 which provides the latest assessment of the quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal and groundwaters. The report shows that water quality in Ireland is not as good as it should be. Only just over half of rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters are in satisfactory condition. The overall ecological health of these surface waters has declined across all water body types since the last assessment (2013-2018). This means these water bodies are less able to support healthy ecosystems for fish, insects and plants.
While the decline in water quality of our rivers and lakes is relatively small (1% and 3% of waterbodies respectively), the number of estuaries and coastal water bodies in satisfactory condition has decreased by almost 16% and 10% respectively.
These declines are mostly along the southeast and southern coasts where nitrogen emissions from agricultural activities are having a significant negative impact on water quality. Excess nitrogen causes algal blooms in our estuaries which can damage the ecosystem, and excess nitrogen in drinking water can pose a risk to human health.
Commenting on the report, Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said: “The scale of the declines in our estuaries and coastal waters is alarming. In recent years the EPA highlighted that nutrient levels in our rivers and groundwaters are too high and that trends were going in the wrong direction. We are now seeing the impact of these emissions on our estuaries and coastal waters. Areas such as Cork Harbour, Wexford Harbour and the Slaney, Suir and Nore estuaries have lost their good water quality status. This directly impacts the marine biodiversity and ecological value in these areas”.
The report highlights that since the last assessment published in 2019, the number of monitored water bodies in satisfactory condition has declined by:
1% in rivers,
3% in lakes,
16% in estuaries,
10% in coastal waters.
River Suir,Thurles Foot Bridge areanear ‘Swinging Gates’, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
The main pressures on water quality are agriculture, physical changes such as land drainage and dredging, forestry activities and discharges from urban wastewater. These activities can lead to run-off of nutrients, sediment and pesticides and damage to the physical habitat of waterbodies. The number of waterbodies impacted by urban wastewater remains high, but it is reducing, and the trend is going in the right direction. The number of waterbodies impacted by agriculture has, however, increased in recent years.
Ms Mary Gurrie, Programme Manager, added: “Improvements in water quality are being made, particularly in the priority areas for action where there has been focussed action to restore water quality in the past three years. This shows that improvements to water quality can be made when actions are targeted. However, the gains made are being wiped out by declines in water quality elsewhere”.
The EPA is calling for urgent and targeted action to protect and restore water quality in the next River Basin Management Plan (2022-2027), and full implementation of, and compliance with, the Good Agricultural Practice Regulations.
The full report and a summary report are available on the EPA website. Further information on water quality data and catchment assessments is available HERE.
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