A guardian of the water
Robert Allen talks to Western Lakes campaigner Tony Waldron
Tony Waldron is a tireless environmental campaigner. A thin wiry
man getting on in life, his seemingly emaciated gait is at odds
with his indefatigable energy and eternal optimism.
He used to be a passionate fisherman, concerned for the well
being of the lakes and rivers he fished. Now that concern has
become a quest to preserve the Great Western Lakes - Corrib,
Mask, Carra and Conn - from pollution. And for more years now
than he cares to remember he has been the public relations
officer for the Carra-Mask Angling Federation, entrusted with the
task of highlighting the concerns of local fishing groups, while
acting also, in effect, for environmentalists and local
communities on the wider ecological issues.
For the past eight years he has been trying to get the
authorities to recognise the delicate nature of the western lakes
and rivers. While he accepts that the 26 County State has
recognised the need for environment control, the damage, he
argues, is already being done. Intensive agricultural practices
have damaged rivers and lakes, destroying precious fish stocks
and affecting domestic water supplies.
It was a disaster, he feels, waiting to happen. ``Sadly time and
increasing pressures from both our modern human life-styles and
intensive farming practices and animal production have finally
caught up with us. Our lakes and rivers now appear to be the
innocent victims of our `we're as good as the rest' progressive
Ireland. Our rush to catch up with the rest of the world, both in
the quality of the way we live and the quantity of food and
livestock we produce, has inevitably impacted on what is or
should still be our most valuable resource, namely clean water.
Twenty five years ago we had clean water in our wells, streams,
rivers and lakes.''
``Although many fears and doubts were expressed over the years as
to what was actually happening, the weight of opinion (including
government) was to `plough ahead, keep going' and everything will
be alright once we get there. We may have got there in terms of
improved urban and rural living standards and in far higher
yields and outputs from farming but in the process we have
seriously damaged our once clean waters, although we still
proclaim and live with the illusion that they are in `pristine'
condition.''
If he feels he is beating his head off a brick wall, for most of
the time that is exactly what he is doing. Everyone, even those
in authority in Dublin and in the western counties, now appear to
agree with him and others equally concerned, that Ireland's
rivers and lakes are under serious threat from numerous pollution
sources.
Sewage, leaking septic tanks, phosphorous-rich detergents,
farming practices and overgrazing have seriously compromised the
western lakes, resulting in diminishing fish stocks, expansion of
aquatic vegetation, the growth of algae (multicellular plants
without roots, stems and leaves) and reduced oxygen. Of all the
lakes the Corrib is, according to Dr Roderick O'Connor, in the
greatest danger. Phosphates and nitrates from domestic activity
and intensive agriculture, fertiliser from forestry expansion,
waste from the Mask and the Galway landfill at Carrowbrown and
sewage from the catchment towns of Galway and Mayo have
contributed to the declining water quality of the second largest
lake in Ireland.
The warnings have been there for years, argues O'Connor. ``Thirty
years ago Ireland's rich natural heritage of extensive unpolluted
waters and abundant wild fish made the country the destination of
choice for fishermen,'' he lamented last year. ``Decades of
complacency, neglect and lack of any coherent long-term strategy
in State freshwater-fisheries policy now pushes the fate of many
Irish waterways and their associated fisheries to the brink. It
does appear as if the only long-term hope for protecting the
lakes lies not with the Irish authorities, but with the
considerably more environmentally-friendly EU.''
In recent months, probably because of EU pressure, the 26 County
Department of the Environment have finally admitted that ``changes
in agricultural practices and their intensity have increased the
potential for pollution'' and that ``waste water treatment systems
are not adequate in all cases to cope with domestic and/or
industrial loadings''.
Sadly this isn't the sweet sounding music Waldron and O'Connor
want to hear. Eutrophication - nutrient enrichment of water - due
largely to phosphorous run-off is the single largest water
pollution problem in the 26 Counties yet Dublin wants 10 years to
solve the problem. This, says Waldron succinctly, is
unacceptable.
Chemical fertilisers contribute annually 62,000 tonnes of
phosphorous. Animals feeds add a further 15,000, bringing the
total to 77,000, of which approximately 31,000 is taken up by
crops and animals. The rest eventually makes its way into the
lakes.
It would be easy to simply blame farming practices - particularly
the spreading of phosphorous-rich agricultural wastes and slurry
on land - but that would be a knee-jerk reaction. Ireland is now
an industrial country, dependent on the modes of capitalist
development, science and technology for its apparent well-being.
Agricultural output - once a labour intensive, community
orientated activity - is now an industrial activity driven by
market forces. Since EEC membership capitalist development has
transformed Irish agriculture. The state therefore must take the
blame for the ecological deterioration of Irish rivers and lakes.
By promoting the use of chemical fertilisers and encouraging such
activity as winter housing of animals who then need large
quantities of silage to feed them, the state has induced the
conditions which farmers operate under today. And because the
farming community and the Irish economy as a whole have become so
dependent on these methods of agricultural production it isn't
easy to change, and certainly not overnight.
For the past few months Waldron has been patiently waiting to
hear what Dublin proposes to do about the implementation of the
EC directive on the discharge of dangerous substances into the
aquatic environment. He also wonders when the state will fix
water quality directives for the western lakes. An Phoblacht
contacted the EPA about these issues, without response.
Both Waldron and O'Connor hope that those in the corridors of
power in Brussels will urge Dublin to declare these delicate
ecosystems areas of scientific interest or areas of national
heritage, protected by enforceable and enforced regulation.
For Waldron the end of his quest is in sight. Perhaps its time we
all spoke out about water quality in Ireland. Afterall we depend
on it for our survival.
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