Lough Carra Group Water Scheme (GWS) has teamed up with a number of the Irish Men’s Sheds across Co. Mayo for a ‘bee hotel’ initiative which will raise awareness of the links between water quality and biodiversity.
Castlebar, Charlestown, Crossmolina, Kiltimagh, Louisburgh, and Westport Men’s Sheds have made 600 bee hotels which are being distributed to members of Lough Carra GWS this week.
These hotels provide a habitat for a number of wild bee species, many of which are in decline, partially due to the use of pesticides such as weed killer, which also poses dangers to local drinking-water supplies.
According to Tom McGill, chair of the Lough Carra GWS, one drop of pesticide chemicals in a drain can be detected more than 30km away.
“Pesticides are very difficult to remove in water treatment plants and they can be harmful to the environment in a number of ways.
“We wanted to explore the biodiversity and water quality relationship by providing every family on the group water scheme with a wild bee hotel.
“We felt that if householders took measures to protect bees and their habitat, this could also help protect water quality in the GWS drinking source,” he said.
The project began when Seamus Swift, a volunteer from east Mayo on the National Board of the Irish Men’s Shed and chairman of the Kiltimagh branch, was approached about the prospect of producing bee hotels.
Following this, Swift said the men in his local shed “were only too happy to help”, but he also enlisted the help of a number of other branches around the county.
“Men’s Sheds were set up as a safe environment for men to come together socially in their spare time,” he said.
“They are places where men can talk and listen and have a laugh. We work on projects such as the bee hotel initiative – anything with a community focus.”
The initiative between the groups is as part of a wider project funded by both the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the Department of Housing and Local Government.
Managed by the National Federation of Group Water Scheme (NFDWS), this government-funded initiative will see the creation of drinking water source protection plans for 14 group schemes across Ireland and the implementation of several actions aimed at protecting local water.
It comes ahead of World Water Day tomorrow (March 22), which aims to raise awareness and accelerate change to the water-related and sanitation crises around the globe.