IN a statement issued to the Limerick Post this Wednesday afternoon, Irish Water said that the repair and upgrading of its water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants, water and sewer network will require a multi-billion euro investment programme over many years.
“At the same time we have to dedicate over €100m to €200m a year to maintaining existing assets in good working order. In implementing the capital investment programme Irish Water prioritises investment decisions to ensure that it utilises available funding most effectively by making investments that deliver the biggest benefit while maximising value-for-money,” Irish Water explained.
The statement continued: “As a national utility Irish Water has one overall strategic plan and one budget across a number the key areas including drinking water quality, wastewater quality, service continuity and catering for growth. We use operational information to help to decide when and where to upgrade pipes and develop infrastructure. This is based on risk assessment which looks at the condition of the asset, its age and pressure; the scale of customer impact such as number of people affected; and if big businesses or hospitals on that network; and supporting social and economic growth.
“One of our key goals is that the same standard of service for water and wastewater will apply no matter where you live in the country. Achieving this objective will take time according the varying condition of the assets.
“While a significant part of the budget will always be devoted to developing infrastructure, Irish Water strategy over the past four years has been the deployment of capital programme over a large number of assets to make systematic improvements to enable the existing infrastructure to deliver the best possible service in the short and medium term.
Ultimately the overall scale of funding is a matter for government having regard to the assessment of needs by Irish Water.”
by Alan Jacques
