How to get involved
There are many ways to get involved in looking after your community’s catchment.
- Sign up for the Catchments Newsletter using the form on the front page of this website
- Contact the Local Authority Waters Programme and ask them about how their Community Water Officers can help you out
- 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
Sign up for the Catchments Newsletter
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.
You can do this on the front page of this website.
All previous issues are free to download: www.catchments.ie/catchments-newsletter/
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 4,829 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.
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 that will be implemented after public consultation and sign off by the Minister.