DONEGAL County Councillors have unanimously expressed their dissatisfaction with the Council's executive for grouping together the county's water schemes for the purpose of submitting a needs assessment to the Department of the Environment.
"In Donegal we are unique in that we prioritise our water services on an electoral area basis. For the purpose of the Department's programme, however, we have had to group them all into a county-wide programme," explained Director of Services, Jim Holohan.
Cllr Frances Conaghan expressed his dissatisfaction that:
"This report has just been dropped under our nose to be rubber-stamped." While Cllr Dessie Larkin commented:
"It is unsatisfactory that an assessment of needs for 2006 is coming before us in November. It is hard to understand why, at the last minute, this is going forward."
Mr Holohan explained that based on the Needs Assessment for 2003, Priority for the Assessment of Needs in 2006 had been given to seven proposed schemes, which contained bundles of different schemes in order to ensure they made it onto the Department's programme. The first on this list is the Letterkenny Water Strategy.
The reason Letterkenny has been given priority, Mr Holohan explained, is due to a potential EU prosecution.
"We have been advised under the EU Water-framework Directive that a secondary wastewater treatment plant is required in Letterkenny to comply with the Directive. On these grounds it is necessary to expedite the provision of secondary treatments."
The majority of Councillors raised concerns about their own electoral areas and concerns over water and sewerage systems.
Cllr Pearse Doherty commented:
"With regard to the Rosses Regional Water Supply there are sections in Crolly which are so bad local people can't even use the water to brush their teeth. The road there was resurfaced recently and that would have been an ideal opportunity to replace the pipes."
While both Councillors Alice Bonner and Gerry Crawford raised the issue of raw sewage running into housing schemes in Ballybofey and Lifford respectively.
The need for adequate infrastructure in Letterkenny was raised by Cllr. Dessie Larkin, who commented: "The simple fact is that Letterkenny is a gateway town. It is the county's main selling point and the future with regards the north west in terms of tourism, business and infrastructure. If we don't recognise there is a problem in Letterkenny, then what hope is there for anywhere else."
"Europe has categorically stated that they are not happy with what's going into the Swilly, but maybe the only way we will get a reaction and is if we are sued and fined and taken to the European Court."
County Manager Michael McLoone confirmed, however, that he will come back to members with a detailed response on all queries being made.
He also confirmed that a delegation would be meeting with the Minister of the Environment to discuss the whole programme.
