Protest in Mayo over repeated Newport Sewage Plant delays
A protest will take place at 11am on Monday, July 14, outside Uisce Éireann’s corporate offices in Castlebar, as frustration continues to grow over the failure to deliver a long-promised sewage treatment plant in Newport, Co Mayo.
The protest is being led by West Mayo councillors, elected representatives, the Newport Sewage Concern Group, and members of the local community.
The campaign for a sewage plant in Newport began in 2015, after Cllr Brendan Mulroy and the late Neill O’Neill, discovered raw sewage flowing into Clew Bay.
What followed has been a nine-year battle for a sewage treatment plant, but to date, no treatment system has been put in place.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Mulroy said, “It’s now a blame game from Irish Water. They had nine years where they did absolutely nothing.”
In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a licence for the Newport wastewater system as they said there were no major concerns with water quality.
That licence was later revoked after local campaigning prompted a review of two sewage discharge points from Newport into Clew Bay.
Cllr Mulroy said, “It was being held in a holding tank, it wasn’t being treated at all. It was being kept in there and then at high tide it would be flushed out into the sea. The EPA conceded that there was raw sewage flowing into the bay so the licence was revoked.”
Following this, Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) committed to providing wastewater treatment in Newport by the end of 2023.
“The 2023 date wasn’t met and then they came up with 2025,” explained Cllr Mulroy.
“They kept making commitments and promises to elected members and most importantly to the public in Newport that it would be delivered and there was no issue.”
However, the latest update from Uisce Éireann has seen the projected completion date revised to 2030.
“We are at the stage now, it’s 2025 and they’re saying it will be 2030, we had a meeting with them last Friday. New regulations have come in now, but from 2016 to 2025 Irish Water had nine years to deliver the plant under the old regulations,” he said.
Cllr Mulroy called for political unity on the issue.
“We don’t want a political football to be made out of this. All politicians need to work together on this because the people in Newport are more important than any political party.”
He has urged people to show up and support the Newport community saying, “Enough is enough, it is way past time for delivery of this sewerage treatment plant.”
This article has been funded by The Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.