Directive 2000/60/EC, the Water Framework Directive, provides a comprehensive basis for the protection and improvement of inland surface waters, groundwater and transitional and coastal waters. The Directive requires that Member States take a catchment-based approach to the protection of waters by establishing river basin districts and management plans for these districts.
In July 2010 I approved river basin management plans for each of our seven river basin districts. The plans set out the current status of our waters, the environmental objectives to be achieved and the measures to be implemented in order to achieve those objectives. They cover all of the waters in the country, numbering approximately 5,000 surface water and 800 groundwater bodies.
The plans aim to increase the proportion of rivers and canals at good or high status from 54% currently to 68% by 2015 and the proportion of lakes at good or high status from 65% currently to 84% by 2015. These would represent significant improvements in water quality and the process of improvement will continue into subsequent planning cycles.
The measures to protect and improve waters require an appropriate legal base and since 2007, I have significantly strengthened the legislative framework for the protection of waters. New regulations, the Waste Water Discharge (Authorisation) Regulations, were introduced in 2007 requiring local authorities to obtain discharge licences from the EPA for wastewater treatment plants.
In 2009, the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Surface Waters) Regulations were introduced, establishing environmental quality standards and giving further effect to the Water Framework Directive. Earlier in 2010 I introduced complementary legislation in relation to groundwater.
The most recent Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2012 also reflects the priority which I have given to the protection and improvement of our waters, both in terms of the continued high level of investment and the alignment of the programme with the environmental priorities identified in the river basin management plans.
The challenge now will be to ensure that the objectives of the river basin management plans are realised. This will require, inter alia, a review of the current administrative structures in the context of implementing the recommendations of the report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group which recognised the potential for strengthening the delivery approach at regional level, building on existing shared services arrangements.