Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí a labhair ar an ábhar seo. I am pleased to apprise the Seanad of the current status of the implementation of water quality improvement plans under the rural water programme of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The rural water programme is an integral part of the water services investment programme. It has put in place a large number of new water and sewerage scheme in our cities and towns in recent years. The focus of the rural water programme is on improving the quality and efficiency of water services for the 1.5 million people who live outside main urban areas.

This year, a record €142 million has been provided for the rural water programme, reflecting a major programme of upgrading works. It is now being progressed to bring the quality of group water schemes into compliance with required standards. Under the previous national development plan, more than €575 million was spent on the upgrading of quality deficient group water schemes. The new national development plan is set to continue this high level of investment, with a further €850 million for the rural water sector.

One primary objective of the rural water programme is to provide all group water schemes with a quality, treated water supply. The priority is to deal as soon as possible with all schemes falling within the remit of the drinking water EU directive. These are schemes serving 50 or more persons or schemes with a commercial element.

In 1997, the administration of the various measures under the rural water programme was devolved to the local authorities. Responsibility for the selection and approval of schemes, and payment of grants, rests with county councils. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government retains overall responsibility for policy matters. The funding for the programme comes from the Exchequer through annual block grants allocated to councils by the Department. The individual allocations reflect the level of activity locally and are based on work programmes submitted by councils.

The programme is being implemented in a spirit of partnership and co-operation between the main stakeholders which includes the National Federation of Group Water Schemes, rural organisations such as the IFA, ICMSA and ICA, local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

To understand the scale and complexity of the water quality issue in rural areas it is important to have an appreciation of the scale of the group schemes sector and of the services provided. According to the 2006 census, there are more than 5,500 group water schemes, serving around 173,000 households. The majority of group water schemes, more than 3,700, vary in size from two to 15 houses and are not subject to the drinking water regulations.

Some 1,800 schemes have been identified as falling within the remit of the drinking water regulations on the basis they serve more than 50 people or supply a commercial operation. Some 728 of these schemes have their own private water source. The remainder obtain their supply of treated water through the local authority public supply networks. Water quality in these schemes is generally satisfactory and on a par with that of the parent scheme.

Water quality problems are mainly experienced by group water schemes dependent on private sources such as rivers, lakes and boreholes and have no proper water treatment and disinfection equipment in place. In 2002, Ireland was found by the European Court of Justice to be in breach of its obligations under the drinking water directive by failing to ensure compliance with drinking water quality standards in group water schemes and a considerable number of smaller public schemes, on the basis they exceeded the bacteriological parameters of the directive for drinking water.

In 2003, the national rural water monitoring committee compiled an action plan setting out a strategy for upgrading the group water schemes falling within the remit of the drinking water directive. The target was to bring all relevant schemes into compliance. The plan has been instrumental in focussing the targets of the rural water programme and achieving the objective of improved water quality for rural schemes.

The 728 privately sourced group water schemes that fall within the remit of the drinking water regulations serve more than 88,000 domestic connections. Under the national rural water monitoring committee's action plan, upgrading solutions to ensure compliance with the drinking water directive have now been identified for all 728 schemes. The figures involved will demonstrate to the House the extend of the response required.

Up to 224 group water schemes are being provided with water treatment facilities through bundled design, build, operate contracts. Up to 34 schemes will receive stand-alone water treatment facilities. Some 104 quality deficient group water schemes are being taken into public charge by county councils. Some 99 schemes will decommission poor quality sources of supply and take new connections from local authority public water supply networks. Up to 170 will have disinfection-sterilisation facilities provided while 97 schemes have been absorbed into the public network by the local authorities.

The current status of the upgrading programme is that 72%, 525 schemes, serving 80%, 70,248, of domestic connections will be completed by end of 2007. Work on a further 56 schemes is under way and 103 schemes at the advanced planning stage, likely to commence construction early in 2008. The remaining 44 schemes are at various stages in planning with construction expected to commence by mid 2008.

Through the policy of rationalisation and amalgamation of smaller group water schemes, particularly in counties Galway and Mayo, where almost 40% of the identified group water schemes are located, substantial cost and operational efficiencies have been achieved. In tackling the deficiencies in rural drinking water supplies, we have not only concentrated on infrastructural investment in group water schemes but adopted a holistic approach by continuing and intensifying numerous measures to strengthen the sustainability, delivery and management of water services in general.

In the delivery of the programme all stakeholders are agreed that the provision of costly water treatment projects for group water schemes without complementary actions to prevent pollution of the source is unsustainable.

To this end several source protection pilot projects to protect vulnerable group water scheme sources from the threat of pollution from agriculture, commercial activity and septic tanks are being implemented. The intention is that lessons learned from the pilot projects will allow workable and sustainable solutions to be adopted for preventing source contamination and will inform future policy on source protection for group schemes nationally.

A range of new, small scale wastewater collection and treatment systems as a means of meeting the requirements of small rural communities are being tested. The hope is that these alternative collection and treatment systems will prove appropriate for use in small rural communities with low population density and site specific environmental conditions, such as shallow bedrock, high ground-water conditions and limited effluent discharge locations. As part of the same pilot process, the potential for a greater role for group sewerage schemes will be also examined. We have committed to a review of the group sewerage scheme grants when the results of the pilot schemes are available by the middle of next year.

To help develop the skills of the group schemes personnel to meet the challenges of delivering consistently high quality water to consumers and effectively managing the operations and finances of their schemes, the remit of the water services national training group now includes training and development for the group water scheme sector. Management development programmes have been devised specifically for group water schemes with the objective of providing group scheme managers and committees with the capacity to respond to a rapidly evolving water services industry. It also aims to allow them to manage and operate schemes in an atmosphere of greater regulation, coupled with increased consumer demands for higher levels of service.

Under the Water Services Act 2007, provision is made for the introduction of a licensing system to regulate and develop the operations of the group water sector. The Department consulted widely with the group scheme movement when the Act was being drafted and the sector has given its support to the introduction of licensing. The licensing regime will put groups on a much more organised footing and will help to secure the long-term viability of those community water schemes that have served well over the past 40 years.

Overall, therefore, the picture is a positive one. The rural water programme provides a structured and focussed approach to the upgrading and renewal of rural water supply systems, which has, as a core objective, the improvement of water quality in private group water schemes. The programme is backed by unprecedented levels of Exchequer spending which has facilitated remarkable progress in the past four years in bringing the water supplied by group schemes into line with European standards. We are now in the position of having improvement works completed and in place for the majority of substandard schemes. We can look forward to completing the task in 2008 when the group schemes sector will be able to report full compliance with EU regulatory requirements.