A series of meetings is set to be hosted around the country for communities and farmers to discuss the current water quality status in their local catchment area.
The meetings will be hosted by Teagasc’s Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advice Programme (ASSAP) advisors and are supported by advisors from the dairy processing co-ops and by scientists from LAWPRO.
These meetings are part of the ASSAP, which is a new collaborative approach to facilitate improvements in water quality, bringing all the relevant people and organisations together.
Commenting on the meetings, the manager of the ASSAP programme, Noel Meehan, said: “It is in all our interests to work together to improve Ireland’s overall water quality and the well-being of society.
“It will also help to strengthen farming by underpinning the future development of sustainable Irish agriculture.”
- Provide information on the quality of water in the local catchment;
- Provide information on the advisory service the ASSAP will provide to farmers in the catchment;
- To discuss potential mitigation measures aimed at preventing nutrient and sediment loss to waters.
The ASSAP is being delivered by 20 advisors in Teagasc and nine advisors based in the co-ops.
Initially, the focus of the project is on 190 ‘priority areas’ throughout Ireland.
The programme is a collaborative one with funding and support received from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Dairy Sustainability Ireland.
To see upcoming meetings, click here.
Meetings for farmers and communities are taking place in catchments in counties: Waterford; Tipperary; Cavan; Mayo; and Galway this week.