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Home News The Water Forum’s Latest Publication: Transitional & Coastal Waters Policy Brief

The Water Forum’s Latest Publication: Transitional & Coastal Waters Policy Brief

An Fóram Uisce | The Water Forum has published a new policy brief on the management of water quality in Ireland’s transitional and coastal waters.

Only a minority of Ireland’s transitional waters are achieving good ecological status, despite ongoing efforts to improve water quality.

The Water Forum’s latest policy brief looks at what is happening across these waters — where pressures from land, rivers, and marine activities converge, but are managed through separate systems.

It points to a number of consistent issues, including:

Impacts on coastal waters linked to pressures originating inland
Differences in how water quality is assessed and managed across systems
Uneven progress in water quality outcomes across water bodies

Taken together, these findings point to ongoing challenges in managing water quality across the land–sea continuum.

Access the full report here – Policy Brief Water Quality & Management of Transitional & Coastal Waters.

Article submitted by: An Fóram Uisce

Learn more

Marine Monitoring

Ecologically healthy marine waters are a valuable natural resource. They support a rich and diverse range of ecosystems, habitats and species, and they are also a source of food – from wild fisheries and aquaculture. They are also important for recreational activities and tourism. Transitional and coastal waters are assessed under the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Having coordinated frameworks for water quality for all the water bodies in Ireland, and across Europe, allows us to compare our results with other countries. It allows us to see what works to help us make sure all our water bodies achieve at least ‘good’ status, and no deterioration occurs.

EPA Marine Monitoring – Clonakilty Harbour, Summer 2020.

Fact Sheets

Assessing marine water quality – EPA fact sheet: Assessing marine water quality – EPA fact sheet | Environmental Protection Agency

The Water Forum factsheet – Ireland’s Marine Waters: Water-Forum-Factsheet-5-Marine-Waters.pdf

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.