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Celebrating community success in Ashbourne

Community Water Officer Aoife McGrath tells us how a community action group is helping tackle litter and pollution in and around the River Broadmeadow in County Meath.

The Ashbourne community are helping to restore the River Broadmeadow to its former glory. In 2017, the community formed the Broadmeadow River Action Group to help tackle litter pollution and diffuse urban pollution on the River. During its first year, the voluntary group achieved some commendable results. This included organising multiple river-clean up days; being awarded a €7,000 grant under the Anti-Dumping Initiative; and hosting a memorable Family Fun Day to mark Water Heritage Day.

Working with the Waters and Communities Office, the community are steadfast in their goals for 2018. Major plans are afoot to continue the regular clean-up days; as well as organising more family fun days; and working with Inland Fisheries Ireland to roll out its “SomethingFishy” Education programme to the local schools. 2017 has been a year of remarkable success for the newly formed Broadmeadow River Action Group – congratulations to all the local volunteers involved.

Aoife McGrath, Community Water Officer, Local Authority Waters and Communities Office

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Ecology Unit

Editor

The Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Unit is involved in assessing the ecological health of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters. We work with our partners to ensure that the information we collect can be used to improve our knowledge and understanding of Ireland’s aquatic environment.

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.