Vol. 564 No. 1
308 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the extent to which he proposes to eliminate pollution caused by overloading of the various sewerage schemes throughout the country in 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9010/03]
The national develop ment plan provides for expenditure of €4.9 billion over the period 2000-2006 on water services infrastructure, the bulk of which will be incurred on the treatment of waste water. This is approximately three times the total comparable spend during the 1994-1999 period. Exchequer expenditure this year is expected to exceed €470 million.
My Department's current Water Services Investment Programme 2002-2004 is the second phase of a rolling three-year strategy that will be advanced progressively up to the end of the NDP in 2006. Funding for waste water infrastructure under the programme is focused on meeting the requirements of the urban waste water treatment directive. A number of significant waste water schemes have already been substantially completed under the programme in locations such as Drogheda, Dundalk, Leixlip, Osbertstown and Loughrea. The increase in waste water treatment capacity produced in 2000 and 2001 alone was sufficient to meet the requirements of a population equivalent, PE, of 448,000 persons, greater than the entire increase of 394,000 PE during the full period of the previous national development plan 1994-1999.
The provision of new waste water treatment facilities is now well advanced in locations such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford and Galway. The programme now incorporates all the remaining waste water schemes for specific agglomerations requiring secondary treatment or better under the urban waste water treatment directive.
The waste water schemes included in the Water Services Investment Programme 2002-2004, which is available in the Oireachtas Library, were drawn mainly from the assessments of needs produced by local authorities in response to my Department's request to all authorities to prepare and submit prioritised proposals for dealing with their capital water services requirements. The assessments have helped to quantify the amount of investment needed to augment existing schemes and to provide new facilities.
