National Water Resources Plan (NWRP)
The NWRP is our plan to identify how we will provide a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable water supply to our customers for now and into the future whilst safeguarding the environment.
The NWRP will set out how we will balance the supply and demand for drinking water over the short, medium and long term. It is a 25-year strategy to ensure we have a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone.
The development of the NWRP will take place in two phases. Phase one the draft Framework Plan identifies how we assess needs across all of our water supplies, and the process that we will use to find solutions to address those needs. The NWRP draft Framework Plan is published with an accompanying Strategic Environmental Assessment Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement, which look at how our Plan considers its impact on the environment.
Irish Water has published the NWRP draft Framework Plan, the first of its National Water Resources Plan, for consultation.
Irish Water is now inviting feedback on the NWRP draft Framework Plan and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement (NIS). A fourteen-week statutory public consultation will run from Tuesday 8 December 2020 to Friday 12 March 2021 during which time the NWRP draft Framework Plan and associated environmental reports can be viewed and downloaded at www.water.ie/nwrp and at your local authority's planning office or County Library (depending on the local authority) during their normal opening hours.
To find your nearest local authority’s planning office or County Library which will display the documents please click here.
We have also published a Non-Technical Summary and Consultation Information Leaflet.
This is your opportunity to feed into the process of how we identify the issues and opportunities for the water supply in your area and how we find solutions, before we apply them to your Region as part of the second phase of the NWRP.
A public information webinar on the draft NWRP was held on Wednesday, 27 January. The webinar was provided as part of the consultation process, to assist in promoting engagement with the plan and to give stakeholders an opportunity to engage with the NWRP team.
In order to ensure a good opportunity for those who attended the public webinar to ask questions, the 20 minute presentation was followed by 40 minutes for questions and answers. Given the time constraints of any webinar, we also gave a commitment that any queries that could not be addressed within this time could be submitted to the project team by email afterwards for written response.
A summary of the questions and answers provided can be found here.
Have your say
If you would like to make a submission, please send it by email or post by Friday 12 March 2021.
- Email: nwrp@water.ie
- Post: National Water Resources Plan, Irish Water, P.O. Box 13216, Glenagery, Co. Dublin
- Freephone: 1800 46 36 76
NWRP Draft Framework Plan Publications
- NWRP Draft Framework Plan
- NWRP Draft Framework Plan - Non-Technical Summary (NTS)
- Appendix A - Consultation
- Appendix B - Planning Scenarios
- Appendix C - Supply Assessment
- Appendix D - Level of Service
- Appendix E - Drought Planning
- Appendix F - Climate Change
- Appendix G - Licensing Constraints
- Appendix H - SELL Report
- Appendix I - Headroom
- Appendix J - Barriers
- Appendix K - Residuals
- Appendix L - SDB Summaries
- Appendix M - Environmental Costing
- Appendix N - Fine Screening
- Natura Impact Statement (NIS)
- Appendix A - AA Screening Report
- Appendix B - List of SACs and SPAs
- Appendix C - Water Dependent QI Species and Habitats
- Appendix D - Water Dependent QI Bird Species
Why do we need a National Water Resources Plan?
Ireland is not a water stressed country. We need to operate our water network to cater for growth and optimise this great natural resource. Water is part of our everyday lives. It is essential to everything we do. Recent droughts and storms have left some customers with no water or reduced water, including a water conservation order (hosepipe ban) for the first time in Ireland.
To prevent this happening in the future we have to plan ahead. How we plan our water resources today will determine the water we can provide now and into the future. Irish Water’s first draft National Water Resources Plan outlines how we can do this.
Our Solution
Irish Water aims to ensure that all of our customers have a safe and reliable drinking water supply and to safeguard our water for our future. Our plan is to use a three-pillar approach:
What is the benefit of the National Water Resources Plan?
The National Water Resources Plan will:
- Improve the level of service to our customers and communities;
- Support growth and development;
- Be resilient in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change; and
- Be sustainable in order to protect the environment.
The draft Framework Plan considers:
- How we assess water quantity need through the Supply Demand Balance;
- How we assess water quality and reliability need by looking at how our existing assets are performing;
- How we address sustainability by ensuring that all new options for water supply must be based on conservative approaches to protecting water sources; and
- Our Options Assessment Process - how we find solutions to address the needs we have identified
We are asking for your feedback on all of the points above. The NWRP is subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA). This ensures that we evaluate environmental impacts likely to arise from the plan, both positive and negative, and outline the appropriate prevention and alleviation measures. Please visit www.water.ie/nwrp for more information.
For illustrative purposes we have also included a Case Study to demonstrate how the methodology is applied to an area. Stakeholders can refer to it to support their submissions and observations on the methodology but will not be able to influence the options for the Case Study area until a later stage of the NWRP process.
What we are consulting on now: NWRP draft Framework Plan Consultation
Public consultation will be a key element in ensuring members of the public and all interested parties have the chance to be part of the development of the NWRP.
The NWRP draft Framework Plan has been published for consultation. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Report and Natura Impact Statement have also been prepared to accompany the NWRP Draft Framework Plan as part of the SEA and Appropriate Assessment processes. These reports demonstrate how environmental considerations have shaped and helped in the development of the NWRP Draft Framework Plan.
These reports have been developed following Consultation One in November/December 2017. Feedback received as part of Consultation One has been reviewed and summarised and presented in Consultation One Report, which can be found here.
Members of the public, interested parties and environmental authorities are being invited to contribute to the development of the NWRP as part of the SEA and AA process through public consultation at keys stages, as outlined in the NWRP Consultation Roadmap.
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Where we are at and what we are consulting on now?
A fourteen-week statutory public consultation will seek feedback on the NWRP Draft Framework Plan and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement (NIS) from 8 December 2020 until 12 March 2021.
All feedback received during the public consultations will be reviewed by the NWRP team and relevant feedback will be incorporated into the final NWRP.
The SEA Statement will outline how environmental considerations have been integrated into the NWRP and how consultation influenced the development of the NWRP.
To make a submission, stakeholders advised to email or post their submissions to the address listed below.
- Email: nwrp@water.ie
- Post: National Water Resources Plan, Irish Water, PO Box 13216, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
Contact details for Public Information Offices can be found here.
Previous Consultation
The first round of public consultation to inform the development of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA), the environmental reports that accompany the NWRP, took place from 9 November to 22 December 2017. For more information, view the Consultation Information Leaflet.
We asked for feedback on the SEA Scoping Report and invited comments and suggestions for consideration at this stage.
A Consultation Report summarising the feedback received in the first round of consultation can be viewed here.
What are the next steps?
- Following on from the public consultation submissions and observations received will be taken into consideration, and the Framework Plan updated. The final Framework Plan will then be produced, accompanied by a Strategic Environmental Assessment Statement and an Appropriate Assessment Determination. The final Framework Plan will be adopted in early 2021, alongside the SEA Statement.
- Phase 2 comprises four Regional Water Resources Plans each of which will be subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment. Each of the four regions will also have their own public consultation phases. These public consultations will take place throughout 2021.
- This is your opportunity to feed into the process of how we identify the issues in and determine what the opportunities are for the water supply in your area. We are also seeking your feedback on how we will develop options to address any problems identified.
- At this stage of the process it is about determining how we assess what we need and how we find solutions. This is your opportunity to shape this process by feeding into the way we find solutions before applying them to your area.
- Once we have developed a robust Framework Plan this will then allow us to go on and find solutions for the Regional Plan in your area. We need you to get involved now at a national level so that when we develop Regional solutions, you will have contributed to the development of the best possible approach to water resource planning. This will allow us to apply it more efficiently on a local level which is more relevant to you, our customer.
National Water Resources Plan video series
National Water Resources Plan
Climate Change and the Environment
Balancing Supply and Demand
Water Supply and Population Growth
Contact us
We are committed to sharing information with stakeholders as the plan progresses. A dedicated information service has been set up where members of the public and interested parties can contact the team via the following channels:
- Email: nwrp@water.ie
- Freephone: 1800 46 36 76
- Post: National Water Resources Plan, Irish Water, PO Box 13216, Glenageary, Co. Dublin