Donegal communities are be encouraged to take the lead from a rural village in the West of Ireland which stamped out pesticides in water supply.
For years pesticide exceedances were an issue for Newport’s water supply in Co Mayo, but a targeted team approach has seen the supply removed from the EPA’s list of vulnerable water supplies.
Uisce Éireann is encouraging people in Donegal to follow in the footsteps of the community of Newport and consider the environment and alternatives to pesticides when gardening, farming and maintaining sports grounds.
As a result, drinking water the utility says, will be improved.
In Newport, the local community worked with representatives from the Local Authority Waters Programme, Mayo County Council, The Department of Agriculture Food and Marine, National Federation of Group Water Schemes and Animal and Plant Health Association.
Uisce Éireann and the NPDWAG are asking the farming community, greenkeepers, grounds keepers, and also domestic users of pesticides, to consider in each case whether they need to use pesticides at all.
