Kilkenny communities on life support are being left to bleed out

There are some issues, as a local journalist, that you will find yourself covering again and again.

Recently, I have been drawn to comment here on an issue that implicates the most simple bare necessity of life for us all: water.

Last week, the elected members of Kilkenny County Council discussed varying an aspect of the City and County Development Plan to allow for the provision of private waste water treatment systems in certain circumstances.

You can read all about that meeting in The Kilkenny People, if you haven’t already, but the result was that the vast majority of councillors decided eventually (after advice from the council executive) not to put forward the proposed variation as it stood.

READ NEXT: Gardaí investigating brazen act of crime in Kilkenny

This decision was essentially driven by the fear of it being tied up in red tape once it reached the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR), who had recommended in their submission on the variation that it not be put forward.

The council has since resolved to alter the wording around the variation to make it more palatable to the OPR but there are still no guarantees that any altered proposal will win favour with the OPR.

Now, it has to be said, the concerns raised by the OPR in relation to the variation relating to potential environmental impacts are valid concerns, but there is a bigger issue at play here.

As it stands, we have local elected officials scrambling around trying to get consent to apply a plaster (in the form of limited private wastewater systems) to the gaping wound of our county’s water infrastructure woes.

Drafted proposals to rectify or alleviate these issues should also be coming from the top-down, rather than the bottom-up and urgent accountability from the government is needed in relation to this matter.

Just last month, elected members of Kilkenny County Council were taken back when it was relayed to them that the delivery of numerous vital water infrastructure projects in towns and villages across Kilkenny could be years and years away.

The meeting heard that under the Uisce Éireann ‘Small Towns and Villages Growth Programme’, the number one priority in Kilkenny (Bennettsbridge) may not see works starting until post-2029.

This, in turn, means that other towns and villages further down on that priority list (such as Paulstown, Piltown, Fiddown, Glenmore, Windgap, Dungarvan and Inistioge) may face even longer delays in the delivery of vital water infrastructure.

It’s simply not good enough. In the meantime, our towns and villages are unable to develop and are suffering hugely.

In the past month alone, there have been multiple reports of burst mains water restrictions all across the county of Kilkenny.

Our water infrastructure is both figuratively and literally weeping as I type, and that too is a major concern for those who are ‘lucky’ enough to have an active water connection.

Indeed, the frustration at local level with Uisce Éireann is plain for all to see. I have published many reports on the matter, but this frustration is mirrored in counties all across the country.

READ ALSO: Former roadside public house for sale in Kilkenny at very low price!

At the start of this piece, I mentioned some of the issues that I encounter regularly as a local journalist, including housing and access to education. Oftentimes these issues are heavily linked.

For instance, in communities where water infrastructure has reached its limit, new housing development stalls, forcing locals to relocate. This creates ripple effects, straining education services in other areas as families move and demographics shift.

To think that some of our struggling rural communities could be waiting a decade before they see action is an oxymoronic thought experiment.

Our rural communities can’t afford to wait. They are already on life support. How much longer will they be left to bleed out?

FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE