A New Water Source for The Eastern and Midlands Region

Today Irish Water published the Final Options Appraisal Report (FOAR) that defined the Preferred Scheme for a new source of water supply for the Eastern and Midlands Region.

The Preferred Scheme is determined by Irish Water as “the abstraction from the Parteen Basin in Tipperary, downstream of Lough Derg, with water treatment nearby at Birdhill, and treated water distributed by a pipeline through the Midlands and Eastern Region, serving communities along the route to Dublin.”

Source: Irish Water

The new preferred source, 170km of pipeline, brings water from the River Shannon and meets the domestic and commercial needs of over 40% of Ireland’s population into the medium to long term future. This will be the first overall upgrade of ‘new source’ infrastructure in over 60 years.

It is expected that the pipeline will be completed by 2024. It should cost between €700 million and €900 million to build this new water source.

The FOAR stated that the other possibility: desalination is not as suitable as the Parteen Basin option. The desalination only benefits Dublin, is less environmentally friendly and could be also more expensive.

More information on: Water Supply Project