Michael Garrick, Patrick J Tobin & Co Ltd; John Murphy, senior engineer with Kildare County Council; Jerry Cronin and Jim Oliver of Nicholas O’Dwyer consultants pictured following their briefing to Kildare County Council on the proposed water abstraction from the River Barrow for south Kildare.
COUNTY HALL, 15 October: by Trish Whelan. Kildare County Council is looking to the River Barrow to supply much of the county’s future water demands. At the most recent Council meeting it was proposed to undertake a water abstraction programme from the River Barrow following a presentation by consultants Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd and Patrick J Tobin & Co Ltd.
The Consultants said the River Liffey, which provides water for Kildare and Dublin, is approaching a point where there is little scope for future abstraction so supplies for the county must be met from groundwater and from the River Barrow.
It is proposed to take up to 8 million gallons a day from the River Barrow - less than 5% of the average flow at the proposed abstraction point within a mile or so upstream of Athy.
Kildare currently requires 52 MLD (megalitres a day) for its needs and most of this comes from the River Liffey. It is anticipated demand will rise to 67.5 in 2005 and 75.9 by 2010. Using the River Barrow would see abstraction from the River Liffey fall to 50.
The proposed scheme will go on public display late October/early November 2001.
Senator John Dardis and Deputy Emmet Stagg said water could be piped from River Shannon to cater for demand in Dublin and Kildare.
Deputy Stagg said the River Liffey has ‘been milked dry’ and engineers now admit they cannot put any more sewerage into the River Liffey or take any more water out of it. He said taking 50 MLD (megalitres a day) has a huge effect on the ecology of the river. He said this will be the first step of major abstraction from the Barrow and ‘a lot more will follow’.
Jerry Cronin of Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd said it is recognised from a Greater Dublin viewpoint that the Liffey as a resource is limited and Dublin Corporation plans to increase the level of water abstraction from Ballymore Eustace which will allow Kildare take a further 7 megalitres of water a day. He said the bulk of the expansion of the Liffey will be for the Dublin local authorities and for Dublin Corporation. He added that Dublin Corporation already has approval to abstract more than it actually does at present.
“We would be able to take 66 megalitres a day from the River Liffey. We’re dropping our dependence on the Liffey by taking water from the Barrow to the level of 50 megalitres a day,” he told councillors. He said until the Barrow system comes on line, sufficient water will not be available to phase out other sources in Kildare.
Mr Cronin said if water is taken from the Shannon ‘it must be in a greater scheme for Dublin and not Kildare’.
The regional water system in South Kildare will be based on Barrow abstraction supplying south Kildare.
©2001trishwhelan/knn