THE establishment of a Shannon River Council, to give a statutory function to all the agencies and voluntary bodies concerned with its protection, has been proposed in a Fianna Fail private member's Bill in the Seanad.
The Bill, drafted by Senator Michael O'Kennedy and Senator Brendan Daly, was given a second reading yesterday. It has been generally welcomed as a major initiative to deal with the growing pollution of the river.
Mr O'Kennedy said Lough Derg in particular had become "the cesspool of the Shannon", with its water quality "utterly degraded" in recent years, mainly due to runoff from agricultural land and the discharge of untreated sewage.
"As a youngster, I was fortunate enough to swim in its clean waters and to fish the rich grounds from Islandmore to Dromineer and Garrykennedy," he told The Irish Times. "But today, I wouldn't even stick my finger in Lough berg.
He said the Bill was intended to restore the waters of the Shannon to the same pristine condition "and to give the young people of this and succeeding generations the same rights and privileges previous generations, have enjoyed".
One of the key roles of the proposed council would be to co ordinate the activities of public authorities and other organisations in managing the catchment and to prepare an overall plan.
For some years, conservation bodies such as An Taisce have argued that water quality should be managed on the basis of river catchments, to overcome the problems of co ordination caused by the existing multiplicity of authorities.
