One Laois river wins share in €60m EU water protection funding

A Laois river has been approved for a new scheme to pay landowners to improve its quality, out of a EU fund of €60million for Ireland.

The River Erkina has won top priority status under groundbreaking new Farming for Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP). It is the only river in Laois to be accepted into the scheme.

The Erkina flows north from Kilkenny towards Rathdowney and then east towards Durrow entering the important River Nore around 1.5 km east of the town.

Landowners along the route can now get paid to do remedial work to protect its banks and improve water quality. They can even get money for solar powered water pumps to pump river water to troughs for cattle, and to fence off the river to prevent bank erosion.

Winning the status for the river has been a result of long work of the Erkina EIP committee chaired by Michael G Phelan, who is also chair of the Woodenbridge Paddlers who canoe on the Erkina.

He told the Leinster Express / Laois Live about it.

“Ciara Flynn from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) told me about the EIP scheme in 2017. It’s similar to schemes to protect the pearl water mussel and hen harrier. 

“Then Ann Markey from UCD did a feasibility study thanks to a LAWPRO grant we got of just under €9,000. and it found that the Erkina was fit. It’s a natural wetland, a floodplain that floods every year and gets a lot of water birds. It is a Special Area of Conservation and a Natural Heritage Area. 

“We’ve been fighting to get into this since 2017. It surprised us when on December 12 they arranged a meeting and told us we were in,” he said.

The announcement was made to a full house at the meeting in Newtown Mill. The Erkina will be part of the scheme for the next three years.

“It will be longer if there is a good buy-in from landowners and the water quality improves,” Michael explains.

“It’s great, it is there for landowners now, they will get paid for what they do. It’s a win win for the Erkina and for farmers.  For an official to come and look at their yard to see where water runs off, they get €250. They get paid €150 to do an optional day course. A report is done and they can pick what they want to do out of it, like fencing it off from cattle, planting a buffer, pruning trees, sediment traps. 

“It will be a great help because cattle can walk into the river and dirty the water, breaking down the bank, and do their business in the water,” Michael G said.

The EIP win is part of a longer effort by Michael and others to make the most of the Erkina.

“We have been trying to develop it into a Blue Way for ten years, as a river trail for visitors. We have preliminary accreditation now and with Bob Campion from Bob’s Bar we are renting out canoes on the Bluewayman. People can go along a 5.5km stretch and take their time, stop and walk in Durrow Leafy Loop woods along the way and finish at the bridge in Durrow. 

There is lots of interest already in the EIP funding as they have had multiple public meetings with 40 to 60 landowners coming along to each of them.

“It won’t happen overnight but long term it should bring the river quality back to what it was. This is a new way of dealing with it other than dredging. In years to come people will look back and see this was a great thing,” Michael G Phelan said.

The EIP fund was won by a partnership with Teagasc, Dairy Industry Ireland, and the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO).

Further information on Farming for Water European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) can be obtained on the Farming for Water Water European Innovation Partnership – AGRI website – farmingforwater.ie Landowners can contact Fiona Doolan in Teagasc on 087 2585022 or email fiona.doolan@teagasc.ie