Athlone Weir

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC, Directive of the European Parliament and of the European Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy) is the most substantial piece of water legislation ever produced by the European Commission. It will provide the major driver for achieving the sustainable management of water in Ireland and other Member States for many years to come.

The Directive introduces a new perspective in terms of water management, which is based on River Basin Districts (RBDs) and requires that all inland and coastal waters within defined river basin districts must reach at least good status by 2015. It sets out how this is to be achieved through the establishment of environmental objectives and ecological targets for surface waters. These objectives and targets will be clearly set out in a river basin management plan that will also include a programme of measures which will be aimed at ensuring that these targets are achieved. The result will be a healthy water environment achieved by taking due account of environmental, economic and social considerations.

The WFD’s implementation is onerous and it raises many challenges within a demanding schedule. The specific objectives of the WFD are:
• to protect and enhance the status of aquatic ecosystems (and terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly dependent on aquatic ecosystems);
• to promote sustainable water use based on long-term protection of available water resources;
• to provide for sufficient supply of good quality surface water and groundwater as needed for sustainable, balanced and equitable water use;
• to provide for enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment by reducing / phasing out of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances;
• to contribute to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts;
• to protect territorial and marine waters;
• to establish a register of 'protected areas' e.g. areas designated for the protection of habitats or species.

Member States will have to ensure that a co-ordinated approach is adopted to implement programmes of measures to achieve these objectives. The WFD’s objectives can be best summarised as: maintaining “high status” of waters where it exists; preventing any deterioration in the existing status of waters; and achieving at least “good status” in all waters by 2015. The WFD was transposed into national law in Ireland by the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 2003 (SI No. 722 of 2003) which provided for essential, technical transposition of the Directive. These Regulations, together with the corresponding legislation for Northern Ireland, established river basin districts for the whole island of Ireland. Eight RBDs have been established on the island of Ireland, North and South.

The WFD is being implemented through River Basin Management Projects (RBMPs) led by Local Authorities. RPS Consulting Engineers (Belfast) are implementing the Directive on behalf of its client Local Authorities in six of the eight River Basin Districts (RBDs) on the island of Ireland (see map):
• South Eastern River Basin District (SERBD);
• Shannon International River Basin District (ShIRBD);
• South Western River Basin District (SWRBD);
• North Western International River Basin District (NWIRBD);
• Neagh-Bann International River Basin District (NBIRBD);
• North Eastern River Basin District (NERBD),

and have dedicated project offices in Belfast, Carlow, Letterkenny and Limerick. The Regulations also assigned responsibility for implementation of different elements of the WFD to appropriate authorities e.g. the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local authorities.

In the case of each river basin district, the Regulations identify one local authority to serve as co-ordinating authority for all the local authorities in the district e.g. for the ShIRBD the co-ordinating local authority is Limerick County Council. The Regulations require the first river basin management plan to be produced by June 2009 and reviewed/updated on a six-yearly cycle thereafter.

The timetable for implemeting the Directive is challenging as can be seen from the table below.

To date, implementation of the Directive has included a number of milestones including:
• The preparation of The Characterisation and Analysis of Ireland’s River Basin Districts report (see www.wfdireland.ie for report), which details the characteristics of the river basin districts, undertakes a review of the impact of human activity on the status of waters and provides an economic analysis of water use in accordance with the requirements of Article 5 of the Directive. The report serves as a comprehensive assessment of all waters (groundwater, rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters), establishes a baseline and identifies priority actions for subsequent stages in the river basin planning cycle.
• The preparation of the Water Framework Directive Monitoring Programme (see www.epa.ie for report), which is required under Article 8 (1) of the Directive, and has the objective to ‘ensure the establishment of programmes for the monitoring of water status in order to establish a coherent and comprehensive overview of water status within each river basin district’. This programme also covers monitoring in order to implement the National Regulations implementing the Nitrates Directive (S.I. No 378 of 2006).

Current work includes RBD studies (13 in total) which aim to fill the gaps identified under the Article 5 characterisation process, which are necessary in order to identify suitable Programmes of Measures for water bodies. These studies include:
• a Freshwater Morphology study which is being conducted through the ShIRBD, with the objective of resolving uncertainties from the Article 5 risk assessment, and
• the Setting of Environmental Standards which is being conducted through the SERBD and is supporting the Environmental Protection Agency in the setting of national standards for water quality analysis.

	In addition, the Significant Water Management Issues report is currently being finalised, and will be published in June 2007. This booklet is being produced on behalf of authorities that must develop an action plan by 2009 setting out how all the waters within the RBDs will be protected. It sets out the significant water management issues faced and suggests appropriate actions.
Camcor River, Co. Offaly

RPS is supporting the implementation of the WFD as stated, and Ireland (North and South) has performed well during the implementation of the WFD to date. This was recently acknowledged when EU tables, published on the 22nd of March, showed Ireland topping the WFD table for performance as having most fully implemented the Directive. This reflects the success of the combined efforts of the RPS RBD project staff, the Agencies involved such as the EPA, and several Local Authorities.

For further information please contact: Alan Barr, Grace Glasgow or Bernadette Ní Chatháin.

For more information contact:
RPS Consulting Engineers Belfast
T: 048 9066 7914 (from Republic of Ireland), 028 9066 7914 (outside Republic of Ireland)

RPS Consulting Engineers Limerick
T: +353 61 337914