Water quality is set to be enhanced across Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Fermanagh.
It’s after Uisce Éireann and NI Water announced a €32 million PEACEPLUS project to improve water quality in Lough Erne, Lough Melvin and Donegal Bay.
The cross-border project will see Uisce Éireann and NI Water working in partnership to improve water quality in Lough Erne, Lough Melvin, and Donegal Bay – areas of the North-Western International River Basin District which face water quality issues from agriculture, forestry, urban runoff, and wastewater discharges.
Uisce Éireann and NI Water will work collaboratively to identify where investment should be made to address water quality issues, regardless of origin.
Outputs from the WEST project will include the development of two strategies and action plans using robust catchment modelling and sustainable treatment solutions, for acceptance by environmental regulators on both sides of the border.
At the heart of the project will be four capital wastewater treatment upgrades in Ballybay and Blacklion and in Belleek and Garrison, to provide improved treatment for at least 5,000 people, with treatment capacity for an additional 1,000.
Beneficiaries of these efforts include residents, tourists, the mariculture industry, anglers, surfers, councils, environmental regulators, and non-governmental organisations.
The project will be funded under the Water Quality Improvement Programme investment area of the PEACEPLUS programme.
This enables a collaborative cross-border approach to the management and improvement of water quality to address the requirements of the Water Framework Directive in selected water bodies.
