Protecting Freshwater

Water is life, we need to protect it.

Water is essential for the survival of all known forms of life, this includes humans! Ireland’s rivers, lakes & coastal areas are under serious threat. Businesses, domestic, leisure & development activities all have impacts on the water in our environment. A change in the way we treat our water is essential if their wildlife, amenity & economic values are to be protected. Many of our most protected species depend on clean water such the otter, the freshwater pearl mussel and the Atlantic salmon.

What is the IWT doing to promote responsible use of our water?

The IWT is a leader in the SWAN Network. SWAN gather’s Ireland’s leading environmental organisations to work to ensure that new Water Framework Directive (WFD) management plans provide protection for our water. The WFD is European legislation that sets an ambitious target of 2015 for Ireland to achieve ‘good ecological status’ for all our water! (See www.wfdireland.ie ).  We are verifying that recently published River Basin Management Plans are implemented correctly and that shortcomings in the plans are addressed during the implementation process between now and 2015.