Dr Clare Kambamettu investigates the state of Ireland’s ageing and fragmenting water infrastructure and explores how we can safeguard future water supply with demand growing daily.
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Water is our most precious resource, without it life would not exist. As an island nation with 70,000km of rivers, thousands of lakes and over 100 days of rain annually, we have an enviable supply of freshwater. And it's understandable that when surrounded by so much water, there is an inclination to think that it just ‘falls from the sky’. But how many of us know and understand the true cost of supplying a growing population with an estimated 1.7 billion litres of drinking water a day? It’s not just domestic use, Ireland’s biggest industries, pharmaceuticals, tech, agriculture and data centres also have enormous daily water demands and are putting new pressure on an engineered water system that’s already stretched past it’s capacity.
This demand is further compounded by an ageing infrastructure that leaks close to 40% of water back into the ground. Having an increasingly urbanised population combined with increasing demand, threatens the Eastern region regularly with shortages. How will the system cope with future impacts of a changing climate?
25 апр 2022
