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TidyTowns Waters and Communities Special Award 2021

The TidyTowns Waters and Communities Special Award is now open for applications with a closing date of Friday 23 July 2021.

The Waters and Communities Special Award runs in conjunction with the SuperValu TidyTowns competition. It was first introduced in 2017 and is now a regular feature in the TidyTowns calendar.

The competition did not happen in 2020 because of Covid-19. We are now inviting you to tell us how your community group showed an appreciation for your water environment and water heritage during the pandemic. We are especially interested in innovative water related initiatives around your local rivers, lakes, streams, canals, or coast. Examples of community initiatives include clean ups; provision or upgrading of public amenities; conservation of biodiversity and heritage; promotion of angling; local education and awareness raising projects; etc.

Applications received will be assessed by a panel of judges appointed by Inland Fisheries Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and the Local Authority Waters Programme. The judges will assess each application under the following headings:

Awareness raising (15 Marks)
Community involvement (20 Marks)
Stakeholder engagement (15 Marks)
Project benefits (40 Marks)
Lessons learned and plans for the future (10 Marks)

The Waters and Communities Special Award is open to any community group to apply. It is sponsored by Inland Fisheries Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and the Local Authority Waters Programme. The award has a total prize fund of €7,000 divided across four regions in line with the main TidyTowns competition. The overall winner will receive €2,000 for their community group.

To read about previous winners of the Waters and Communities Special Awards see: https://stg.catchments.ie/?s=waters+and+communities+award

The Application form and details of other special awards are available on the TidyTowns website: www.tidytowns.ie

We wish you the best of luck and we look forward to reading your entry.

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.

Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.