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Enniscorthy Community Water Projects

The River Slaney is the lifeblood of Enniscorthy. This meandering waterway is a biodiversity highway running straight through the centre of this historic town. So much of Enniscorthy depends on this watercourse for drinking water, industry, agriculture, tourism and amenities.

Over the last year, two community groups – Enniscorthy Tidy Towns and Sustainable Enniscorthy have joined forces to help protect this precious resource. Thanks to grant funding from the Local Authority Water’s Programme (LAWPRO) the groups have been able to implement a series of local actions to protect, enhance and conserve water in the Slaney Catchment.

Kayak clean up events

The groups have hosted several successful kayak clean up events over the last number of years. An event held, 2 April 2025, saw forty local volunteers remove litter and dumped materials from the river. Over 60 bags of waste were removed during the event, including plastic bottles, aluminium cans, household waste, farm waste, glass and metal kegs. When some of this waste degrades it can produce harmful micropollutants. Removing these will help, but prevention is better than cure! In September 2025, during World Rivers Day, the group of volunteers removed another 20 bags of litter and dumped materials from the River Slaney, highlighting the impact of human activity affecting the river.

A group of people wearing helmets and life jackets holding paddles, posing in front of a van with the text “Adventure is waiting… GoPaddle.ie.” Buckets and gear are placed on the ground in front of them, with trees in the background. — **Volunteers who helped at the kayak clean up in April, 2025**

Volunteers joined forces with other community groups that use the river; GoPaddle, Edermine Rowing Club and Slaney Search & Rescue to gather a huge haul of dumped materials from the river. The take home message – dispose of your waste correctly.

These kayak events help remove pollution, raise awareness of this fantastic amenity, and highlight the pressures facing our rivers. Watch this short video of the latest kayak cleanup.

Water Conservation Project

Like many catchments in Ireland, the Slaney is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In recent years, the town has also suffered from drought conditions, with hosepipe and other water restriction measures commonplace during the summer months. On Christmas Day 2021, the town and surrounding areas suffered flash flooding from an unprecedented heavy rainfall event.

Several large black plastic water butts arranged outdoors on a paved area near a metal garden bench, with greenery and flowers in the background. A visible label on one butt reads “100 Litre Slimline Water Butt Set. — **100 and 200 litre water butts the group distributed in August 2024**

With thanks to grant funding from LAWPRO, both groups came together to purchase and distributed over forty water butts in the community for free. These water butts have multiple benefits of ‘slowing the flow’, reducing treated water usage and enabling residents to harvest rainwater to use around the home and garden.

These 100 and 200 L butts were distributed among local groups including Enniscorthy Community Allotments, St. John’s daycare hospital, St. Senan’s Primary School, Enniscorthy youth reach and private residents. This initiative has helped the community harvest, conserve and reuse approximately 5,000 litres of this precious commodity. You can follow progress of the project on the ChangeX platform

Local actions can make a difference

Community groups in Enniscorthy are proof that local actions can make a difference in our catchments. If you are involved in a community group and would like to know more about the LAWPRO catchment support fund check out this link here: Catchment Support Fund – Local Authority Waters Programme

Enniscorthy Tidy Towns is now part of the recently form Slaney Catchment Community Forum if you are interested in water quality and community collaboration to improve our rivers more info is available here – Slaney River Catchment Community Forum officially launched – Local Authority Waters Programme

Learn more

Feel free to follow Enniscorthy Tidy Towns and Sustainable Enniscorthy on social media to keep up to speed with their progress! The group will launch a Community Biodiversity Action Plan which focuses on improving and protecting the biodiversity of the popular River Slaney Countrisude Walk on 27^th November 2025 at 7p.m in the Riverside Park Hotel.

Contact the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) and ask them about how their Community Water Officers can help you get started

Want to read more stories about community projects and environmental action? Check out our Catchments Newsletter for inspiring updates from across Ireland.

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.