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address the local agricultural problems that are identified. All these teams are working together to drive measurable and sustainable improvements in water quality in these 190 Areas for Action between 2018 and 2021.
The significant pressures on our water bodies at the time of the assessment can be viewed on
therefore need ongoing protection, including implementation of best practice management strategies, and prevention of accidents.
While this implementation is underway; planning for the 3rd cycle plan has started. The Minister recently published the draft timetable and work programme for the River Basin Management Plan 2022 – 2027 for public consultation. The consultation document sets out the main steps and milestones in the three year process to the next River Basin Management Plan, which is due to be published in December 2021, and the steps which the Department will take to ensure comprehensive engagement with the public and all stakeholders. This consultation is open until the end of June 2019 .
Council Journal 27
FEATURE Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA has been playing its part by developing the evidence base to underpin the Plan. This is not a simple task as there are many pressures impacting on water, not all of which are significant (i.e. actually contributing to the water quality issues). EPA carried out national assessments to identify which pressures are significant. The work involved almost 50-person years’ worth of work, over 140 datasets and a range of modelling tools. Local information and experience from local authority and Inland Fisheries Ireland staff, and a wide variety of other public bodies, was captured and considered. This led to a rigorous assessment of the risk of individual areas (called water bodies) failing to meet their objective (Figure 3) and identification of the pressures causing the water quality issues in each water body that is “at risk”.
www.catchments.ie/maps. Agriculture was found to be the most prevalent significant pressure impacting on “At Risk” water bodies (53%), which is not surprising given that agriculture is also the most prevalent land use (Figure 4), but there are also a range of other significant pressures.
Planning for the 3rd cycle
This evidence base has been key to assisting in the identification of the 190 areas where action is now being focussed. The EPA has also provided the new implementation teams with the tools, science and training needed to support their work. EPA will now be tracking and reporting on the implementation of the plan as the work of the implementation teams and other national level actions is progressed. In the meantime, EPA is starting to build the evidence base to support the next River Basin Management Plan in conjunction with the Local Authorities Waters Programme. Water bodies that are currently ‘Not at Risk’ could still deteriorate in the future, and