EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 6. Conclusions Water Quality under Significant Pressure The findings presented in this chapter indicate that the quality of Ireland’s surface water resource is under significant pressure from human activities. Overall, just over half (52.8%) of its surface waters are in good or better ecological health, which means that just under half (47.2%) are failing to meet their environmental objectives. An analysis of the pressures has found that the main activities affecting the quality of Ireland’s surface water and groundwater resource are agriculture, hydromorphological alterations, discharges from urban wastewater treatment plants and forestry. Continued Decline in Ecology of Water Bodies These activities are damaging the ecological health of our rivers, lakes and estuaries. Of most concern is the increase in the number of water bodies with poor ecological status, which have increased by one-third since 2009, and the continuing loss of our high status river water bodies, which have declined by one-third since 2009. The loss of our high status waters continues the unwelcome longer term trend seen in the loss of our most pristine river waters, whose sites have declined tenfold since the late 1980s. Currently there are only 20 such sites left in the country. Climate Change likely to Exacerbate the Damage caused to Rivers and Estuaries by Water Pollution The continuing decline in the ecological health of our surface waters, and in particular our rivers and estuaries, is associated with impacts from various human activities. Both water categories are being damaged by increasing nutrient levels and physical alterations, while our rivers are being further affected by siltation and pesticides. The combined effects of these different stressors mean that these waters are not as clean or healthy as they should be and, as a result, their capacity, or resilience, to recover from further pollution impacts or external shocks is greatly reduced. These shocks will intensify in the context of climate change as more extreme weather brings extremes in water temperatures and water flows, which are likely to exacerbate the damage caused by underlying water pollution. Reduce Nutrient Inputs to Protect Water Quality The challenge now is to ensure that our waters are as clean, healthy and resilient as they can be. This can be achieved by reducing nutrient inputs from agriculture and wastewater treatment and delivering on the key objectives of the Water Framework Directive. We need effective action as part of the River Basin Management Plans to ensure that the current decline in water quality is halted and that the condition of our most polluted waters is improved. We must continue to focus on the protection of our remaining high status waters and prioritise the restoration of water bodies that have recently declined to poor and bad status. This can be achieved by ensuring that the right measures are put in place to address the significant pressures damaging the quality of our waters. Water Catchment-based Approaches The establishment of the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) and the adoption of a catchment- based approach to managing water resources are now the main platforms for dealing with water quality issues. The efforts of LAWPRO, working in collaboration with the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP) and other public bodies, including the EPA, now means that we are developing a comprehensive understanding of where and what the problems are and how to address them. Fully Implement River Basin Management Plan Actions are being taken across all pressure types and sectors, but significant work in all sectors remains. The challenge now is to ensure that the actions set out in Ireland’s national River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021 are fully implemented. This will deliver not only benefits for water quality but also multiple benefits for human health and the broader environment in terms of drinking water quality, biodiversity and climate change. 188