The Water Enhancements through Sustainable Treatment (WEST) project is designed to address water pollution in seven Irish counties through catchment modelling and sustainable wastewater treatment.
The €32 million WEST project is a cross-border initiative between NI Water and Uisce Éireann set up to improve water quality in Lough Erne, Lough Melvin, and Donegal Bay – areas affected by contaminants from agriculture, forestry, urban runoff and wastewater discharges.
The initiative will identify where investment should be made to address pollution, regardless of origin.
Outputs will include the development of two strategies and action plans using robust catchment modelling and innovative sustainable treatment solutions, for acceptance by environmental regulators on both sides of the border.
The project will also implement four low carbon capital wastewater treatment upgrades within Northern Ireland (Belleek and Garrison) and Ireland (Ballybay and Blacklion), to provide improved treatment for at least 5,000 people, plus treatment capacity for an additional 1,000.
The project is funded under the Water Quality Improvement Programme investment area of the PEACEPLUS programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).
This enables a collaborative cross-border approach to the management and improvement of water quality to address the requirements of the Water Framework Directive in selected water bodies.
SEUPB Chief Executive Gina McIntyre said: “WEST is underpinned by a strong collaborative approach and will introduce unique cross-border catchment models and strategies which, although common in Europe, have never before been trialled on this scale on the island of Ireland.
“Our natural environment is one of our most important assets and continued enhancement and protection is critical to future economic and social development.
“A clean, green and accessible environment makes a major contribution to people having long, active, healthy lives as well as creating a place where people want to live, visit and invest.
“With environmental pressures going beyond borders, this project considers the entire catchment as a single ecosystem, aiming to promote a greener, lower-carbon environment and decrease threats to local natural habitats.”
PEACEPLUS is co-funded by the European Union, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Executive.
Through the INTERREG VA programme – a predecessor of PEACEPLUS – a total of more than €55m investment was delivered on water quality improvement projects. These included the Catchment Care, System for Water Quality Monitoring (SWIM), Shared Waters Enhancement and Loughs Legacy (SWELL) and Source to Tap projects.
