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 sets 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.

Following on from the public consultation on Phase 1 NWRP draft Framework Plan and associated environmental reports, the submissions and observations received from public consultation have been taken into consideration, and the NWRP Framework Plan updated.

The NWRP Framework Plan has now been adopted, accompanied by a Strategic Environmental Assessment Statement and an Appropriate Assessment Determination. A Consultation Report summarising feedback received during the public consultation has also been published.

Infograph of the National Water Resources Plan

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NWRP Framework Plan Publications

NWRP Framework Plan
NWRP 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

AA Determination Statement
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

Regional Water Resource Plans

As this is the first NWRP, the preparation of the plan has been divided into two distinct phases, the combination of which will become the final NWRP. As outlined above, Phase 1 was carried out in 2021 and the NWRP Framework has been adopted. In Phase 2 of the NWRP, we summarise the needs across the 535 individual water supplies and identify the solutions to address these needs. Due to the large number of supplies in Ireland, we will deliver Phase 2 as four Regional Water Resources Plans:

Regional Water Resources Plan: North West (RWRP NW)
Regional Water Resources Plan: South West (RWRP SW)
Regional Water Resources Plan: South East (RWRP SE)
Regional Water Resources Plan: Eastern and Midlands (RWRP EM)

Each of the four draft RWRPs and associated environmental reports will have their own public consultation phases and these are be carried out over the course of 2021, 2022 and 2023.

A consultation on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report for the first Regional Water Resources Plan: Eastern and Midlands has taken place. A statutory public consultation on The Regional Water Resources Plan: Eastern and Midlands ran from 14 December 2021 to 8 April 2022. Following on from this, the RWRP-EM and associated environment reports have been updated and adopted. A consultation report has also been published and is available to view and download on the RWRP-EM page.

To find out more visit the RWRP EM page

A consultation on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report for the Regional Water Resources Plan: South West has also taken place. A statutory public consultation on the Regional Water Resources Plan – South West ran from 01 June 2022 to 24 August 2022. A consultation report has also been published and is available to view and download on the RWRP-SW page.

To find out more visit the RWRP SW page

A consultation on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report for the Regional Water Resources Plan: North West has now closed. A statutory public consultation on the Regional Water Resources Plan – North West ran from 22 November 2022 to 21 February 2023. A consultation report has also been published and is available to view and download on the RWRP-NW page.

To find out more visit the RWRP NW page

Consultation with Environmental Authorities is now underway on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report for the Regional Water Resources Plan: South East (RWRP-SE). A public consultation on the RWRP – South East is currently taking place and will run from the 11 July 2023 to 3 October 2023.

To find out more visit the RWRP SE page

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. Uisce Éireann’s first National Water Resources Plan outlines how we can do this.

Our Solution

Uisce Éireann 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:

1. Lose Less

To lose less by reducing the amount of water lost through leakage.

2. Use Less

To use less by encouraging us all to use less water in our everyday lives, improving water efficiency in our homes, businesses, farms and through our own operations.

3. Supply Smarter

To supply smarter by improving the quality, resilience and security of our water supplies through infrastructure and operations improvements and developing new sustainable sources of water.

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.

Be sustainable in order to protect the environment.

The 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.

Our Options Assessment Process - how we find solutions to address the needs we have identified.

What we are consulting on now?

Phase 2 NWRP Regional Water Resources Plans

Public consultation is 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. As this is our first NWRP, we divided it into two distinct phases, the combination of which will form our overall NWRP. Phase 1 NWRP Framework Plan is now complete and comprised an initial scoping and screening consultation, followed by statutory consultation on the draft Framework Plan, which was subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment. We have now published the NWRP Framework Plan, SEA Statement and AA Determination. We have also published a Consultation two report relative to the submissions received on the draft Framework Plan. These reports demonstrate how environmental considerations have shaped and helped in the development of the NWRP Framework Plan. Phase 2 NWRP - Regional Water Resources Plans comprises the development of four Regional Water Resources Plans (RWRPs) each of which will be subject to SEA and AA. Each of the four draft RWRPs and associated environmental reports will have their own public consultation phases.

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Previous Consultation

Phase 1 – NWRP Framework Plan - Consultation one

A first round of public consultation to inform the development of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA), of the NWRP, took place from 9 November to 22 December 2017. For more information, view the Consultation one information leaflet.

We asked for feedback on the SEA Scoping Report and invited comments and suggestions for consideration at this stage.

A Consultation one report summarising the feedback received in the first round of consultation is available to be viewed.

Subsequent to this process and informed by it, a draft NWRP Framework Plan with accompanying environmental reports were prepared and published for consultation.

Phase 1 – NWRP Framework Plan - Consultation two

The NWRP draft Framework Plan identified how we proposed to assess needs across all of our water supplies, and the process and methodology that we would use to find solutions to address those needs.

Consultation two invited feedback on the NWRP draft Framework Plan and associated SEA Environmental Report and Natura Impact Statement (NIS). A fourteen-week statutory public consultation took place from Tuesday 8 December 2020 to Friday 12 March 2021 during which time the NWRP draft Framework Plan and associated environmental reports were available to view and download at www.water.ie/nwrp and at local authority's planning offices or county libraries (depending on the local authority) during their normal opening hours. For more information, view the Consultation two information leaflet.
Following on from this public consultation the submissions and observations received have been taken into consideration, and the draft Framework Plan updated.

The NWRP Framework Plan has now been adopted, accompanied by a Strategic Environmental Assessment Statement and an Appropriate Assessment Determination.

A Consultation two report summarising the feedback received during Consultation two is also available to be viewed. This completes Phase 1- NWRP Framework Plan and means we can move to Phase 2 NWRP – Regional Water Resources Plans.

What are the next steps?

The next phase of the NWRP, Phase 2, comprises the development of the four RWRPs to identify the combination of Preferred Approaches within and between regions to address the needs identified in the Framework Plan.
Each of the RWRPs will be subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Appropriate Assessment, including their cumulative impacts. Each of the four regions will also have their own public consultation phases. These public consultations will take place throughout 2021, 2022 and into 2023.
The consultation on the RWRP - Eastern and Midlands took place from 14 December 2021 to 8 April 2022 and the plan was adopted.
The scoping and screening consultations on the RWRP - Eastern and Midlands RWRP South West and RWRP North West are complete and the plans have been adopted by the Uisce Éireann board. The consultation reports are available to view and download on the RWRP-EM, RWRP-SW and RWPR-NW pages.
The remaining RWRP South East, will be consulted on in the same way, comprising both non-statutory screening and scoping consultation with environmental authorities, followed by statutory public consultations. The public consultation is currently taking place and will run from 11 July to 3 October 2023.
This will be your opportunity to feed into the process of how we:

Identify the issues in your area;
Determine what the opportunities are for the water supply in your area; and
Develop options to address any problems identified.

Once the public consultation period has concluded, all feedback received during public consultation will be reviewed by the National Water Resource Plan team and all relevant feedback will be incorporated into the Post Consultation Report and, where appropriate, incorporated into the final Regional Water Resources Plan South East.
The submissions and observations received from the public consultation outlined above will be taken into consideration before adopting all four RWRPs. Once the complete NWRP has been finalised, compromising the Framework Plan and the four Regional Water Resources, they will be treated as a unified single plan.
Now we have developed a robust NWRP Framework Plan we can proceed to identify issues and solutions in the Regional Plan for your area. We will be asking for your feedback on our Regional solutions over the coming months and you will have an opportunity to contribute to their development. 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, and ensure that this is done in a manner consistent with our environmental obligations.

National Water Resources Plan video series