Warren water needs to be on utility’s radar

THE quality of the bathing water at the Warren Beach needs to be protected, according to Cllr Paul Hayes.

The Independent councillor was speaking at a meeting of Cork County Council’s Western Division.

Cllr Hayes said investment in the wastewater treatment plant in the Owenahincha area, which includes Rosscarbery, is urgently needed.

‘A number of us have brought this up with Irish Water directly, but there doesn’t seem to be any rush to deal with the issue, which is a shame because it was closed for a number of days last summer after the plant overflowed.’

Cllr Hayes asked Louis Duffy, the director of environmental services at Cork County Council, to ‘use your offices to put pressure on Irish Water because it doesn’t seem to be on their radar to invest in it any time soon.’

Mr Duffy said he accepted that a better wastewater treatment plant would ‘reduce the risk in the locality,’ but he said there was ‘no direct evidence to say it (the pollution last August) was directly from the wastewater treatment plant.’

However, he did acknowledge that there was ‘no other identifiable problem at the time.