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TidyTowns Waters and Communities Special Award 2022

The Waters and Communities Special Award is now open for 2022, with a closing date of Friday 10 June. This award has been a regular feature in the SuperValu TidyTowns competition since 2017. Prizes are awarded to communities for projects and initiatives that deliver local benefits for water and biodiversity.

Applications to this award highlight the importance of a local stream, river, estuary, canal, lake, or beach and tell us what winning this award would mean to their local community. In previous years, the range of community initiatives has included local clean-ups, enhancement of public amenities, conservation of biodiversity and heritage, citizen science, promotion of angling and water-based activities, education and awareness raising, promotion of local actions in support of water, biodiversity, and climate action goals.

A panel of judges appointed by the three partners, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Waterways Ireland, and the Local Authority Waters Programme, will assess each application under the following headings:

Awareness raising (15 Marks)
Community involvement (20 Marks)
Stakeholder engagement (15 Marks)
Project benefits (40 Marks)
Highlights to share (10 Marks)

The Waters and Communities Special Award is open to all community groups. The three partners are committed to the success of this award and provide an annual prize fund of €7,000, which is divided across the four regions for the TidyTowns competition. With the overall award winners receiving €2,000 to support their local project or initiative.

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 seeing 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.