Water Matters - Have your say
Cork County Council has published Water Matters - "Our plan!", the South Western River Basin Management Plan (2009 - 2015). It was published on behalf of the participating local authorities which have all or part of their area within the SWRBD.
The South Western RBD management plan covers the period 2009-2015 and has been prepared in consultation with all stakeholders. It sets out the measures to be taken by all stakeholders and the tools to prioritise the application of available resources to those measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. The key parties in its implementation are: the district's local authorities (Cork and Kerry, Limerick, South Tipperary and Waterford and Cork City), which acted jointly to make the plan; Cork County Council, as the coordinating local authority in the district will aim to coordinate the work of the authorities and public participation in the district.
The South Western River Basin District management plan was adopted by all Local Authorities in the SWRBD prior to 30th April 2010, as stipulated in the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 722 of 2003 as amended). The SWRBD plan came into effect on the 15th July 2010.
The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member States (a) to ensure that waters which are designated for protection achieve the necessary standards for the purpose for which they are designated, (b) to prevent the decline in status of all waters, (c) to achieve at least "good status" by 2015 for all waters and (d) to reduce or eliminate the discharge of specified chemicals to waters. The directive is concerned with rivers and streams, lakes, groundwaters, estuaries and coastal waters (out to 1 nautical mile). It brings under one framework water-related directives including those dealing with bathing water, water taken from rivers and wells for drinking water supplies, sewage disposal and the protection of salmon and shellfish habitats. 
The WFD is being implemented on a catchment or River Basin District basis. There are eight RBDs on the island of Ireland; see the map to the right. Each RBD will be managed jointly by the local authorities within which the waters are located, under the co-ordination of one local authority. Cork County Council is the co-ordinating Local Authority for the SWRBD which encompasses Cork City, most of Counties Cork and Kerry and smaller areas of Counties Waterford, Limerick and South Tipperary.
The RBD boundaries do not coincide with county boundaries. This means that some counties are in more than one RBD; parts of County Cork fall into three different RBDs. While most of the County is in the SWRBD small areas are in the South Eastern RBD and Shannon International RBD. River Basin Management plans have been adopted for the SERBD and Shannon IRBD. They have a similar format but the statistics, tables and maps are specific to the RBDs. The RBD Management plans for the SERBD and Shannon IRBD were published by Carlow County Council and Limerick County Council respectively.
The SWRBD Management plan sets out the programmes of measures, i.e. actions which will be implemented by the local authorities to achieve the aims of the WFD.
A Strategic Environmental Assessment of the River Basin Management Plan has been published. Links to the documents that make up the SEA are below.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
Habitats Directive Assessment Report
Hard copies of the River Basin Management Plan are available from the SWRBD Office, Cork County Council, Environment Department, Inniscarra, Co. Cork or may be requested from the following address:
Fergal O'Sullivan,
Executive Engineer,
South Western River Basin District,
Environment Services Directorate,
Inniscarra,
Co. Cork.
Email: fergal.osullivan@corkcoco.ie
To make sure you get the correct version of the Management plan you should identify which River Basin District you live in from the map below. Some people may of course be interested in more than one RBD. You can find the River Basin Management plans for the SERBD and Shannon IRBD at www.serbd.com and shannonrbd.com respectively.
An Irish language version of the River Basin Management plan is available from the SWRBD Office upon request.
You can obtain more information about river basin management by accessing www.wfdireland.ie or www.swrbd.ie where you will find an interactive map and a library of background documents which were prepared to underpin RBD's.
You can also download the SWRBD Management Plan from the SWRBD website at the following link: www.swrbd.ie
