How to get involved

Home How to get involved

There are many ways to get involved in looking after your community’s catchment.

 

  • Sign up for our Catchments Newsletter using the form below.
  • Make sure your primary or secondary school is involved in the Green Schools programme.
  • See if your local Tidy Towns committee is interested in taking part in the “Value Water Award”.
  • Organise an annual spring clean of your area.
  • Get involved with Clean Coasts if you are near the sea.
  • Check Volunteer Ireland to see if there are any relevant groups in your area.
  • Check ChangeX.org to see if there are social innovations you’d like to copy for your area, or to see if you could join an existing group in your community.
  • Set up a locally-led agri environment scheme – you can read a how-to guide on our blog.
  • Set up a Rivers Trust for your area – see blog by Mark Horton.

When you sign up for our Catchments Newsletter, if you tell us what county you are in, we can contact you with information about anything new that starts in your area.

Waters&Communities_Logo_withTag

Also, you can contact the Waters and Communities Office. This office partners with local communities across Ireland to provide advice and support on water-based initiatives.

We have Community Water Officers based across the country who work with local authorities, stakeholders, interest groups, Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs), Public Participation Networks (PPNs), Local Development Companies, and so on to promote community engagement and to mobilise community action around water management.

You can get in touch with the office by emailing info@lawco.ie or phone 0761 06 5262.

Get involved – sign up for occasional updates and our quarterly Catchments Newsletter

Recent articles about getting involved

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 waterbodies.

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 and Communities Office.

LAWCO

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.

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,829 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives and measures for each.

DECLG

Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government

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 that will be implemented after public consultation and sign off by the Minister.