A new electronic monitoring system will be put in place by the European Union (EU) to gauge pollution in the Irish Sea in order to protect Irish shorelines.
In a new Welch/Irish initiative to protect shorelines worth £3.7m (around €4.3m) – Smart Coasts; Sustainable Communities – aims to provide a better understanding of pollution sources and water quality.
Funded by the EU’s Wales/Ireland Cross Border programme, the information gathered will link to electronic information systems to provide bathers with up-to-date water conditions.
UCD and the EPA involvement
The initiative is led by University College Dublin (UCD) as well as Wales’ Aberystwyth University (WAU) as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Environment Agency Wales (EAW).
The overall aim of the project is to ensure water quality is maintained and provide “mandatory quality standards, as well as its monitoring and information obligations, bathing must either be explicitly authorised, or not prohibited and traditionally practised by a large number of people”.
The EU Bathing Water Directive sets limits for physical, chemical and microbiological parameters in bathing waters.
