O’Dowd questions need to pipe Lough Derg water to Dublin
Issued : Monday 16 August, 2010
LABOUR councillor Virginia O’Dowd has questioned the rationale behind piping water to Dublin from Lough Derg.
“Apart from all the ecological reasons why this should not happen, I believe we are being fed a list of statistical reasons for taking our water that do not add up. The figures being trotted out remind one of the saying; ‘There are lies, damned lies and statistics’,” she said.
The Nenagh-based town and county councillor said that, according to the report by consultants RPS-Veolia JV, the cost of building a desalination plant would be too high, compared to the €450m estimated to build a system to take water from Lough Derg and pump it to Dublin. This system would then have an operational cost of between €8m and €15m.
“My question to the consultants who attended last week’s meeting in Dromineer on desalination was dismissed out of hand as too costly. I was not given the figure. But how could I believe any of their costings when they have an almost 100 per cent difference between the lowest and the highest operational cost. A difference of €7m is unacceptable in a report that carries such an important impact for this county and region.
“I believe desalination is a real option. It could be linked to the present system at a far less environmental cost than running a big pipe halfway across the country. It could, for example, be located on or near the site for the proposed incinerator in Dublin and could even be part-powered by electricity generated by the incinerator,” she said.
“I know the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, is against incineration because he wants more recycling. Why can’t we recycle our water? Desalination could recycle the water from the River Liffey and Dublin Bay.”
Cllr O’Dowd pointed out that London operates a desalination plant that caters for one million people, and which opened this March.
“The cost of the plant was €250m sterling, considerably less than the estimated €470m figure given by the consultants. It took less than two years to build and runs on biodiesel sourced in the UK, including recycled fat and oil from London restaurants and households. It involved the construction of just 15 kilometres of new piping,” she said.
She also pointed out that there were just under 8,000 desalination plants worldwide, with many of these in the Middle East.
Cllr O’Dowd also stated that the projected increase in Dublin’s water need and population was based on Celtic Tiger years, and that these figures could not be relied on. The current population of Dublin is 1.5 million and this is expected to rise to 2.2 million by 2031.
“Based on the London figures, one desalination plant would cater for more than the estimated increase in Dublin’s population. Anyway, I can’t see Dublin growing by 50 per cent in the next 21 years at a time when we are expected to have massive emigration. It is also unsustainable to crowd all the population into the one region. If the Government had a proper regionalisation policy, then we would have more industry spread throughout the State and not just hogged by the East Coast, and consequently, no one region would have the need to drain another region of its water supply,” said Cllr O’Dowd.
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