A SHOCKING report, compiled by a member of the public, has highlighted the horrendous state of affairs regarding water quality in one of our most popular tourist villages.
Ballydehob native Cormac Levis felt compelled to produce his own report on the state of the wastewater ‘treatment’ plant in the village, to highlight the damage it is doing to his beloved village and surrounds.
In his report, Cormac has even included unsavoury images of the water that is coming from the ‘treatment’ plant, although it’s hard to see what treatment this water – and other elements of human waste – have gone through.
This week Deputy Holly Cairns, who has had a longstanding interest in the environment, and was brought up at nearby Turk Head, described the plant as ‘little more than a septic tank.’
When you see the images of the brown sludge floating in the water in Ballydehob, it is very hard to disagree with that description.
The fact that this is often floating in water alongside the community park and playground is even more shocking.
It is hard to understand how a water utility in the 21st century can stand over the ‘treatment’ of water to this poor standard.
Deputy Cairns also highlighted that the water is flowing into Roaringwater Bay – and its special area of conservation. Of course, Ballydehob is also a hugely popular tourist destination – being located neatly between Skibbereen and Schull.
But it is also a very popular destination for camper van owners, who find the quays alongside the estuary a perfect parking spot in summer.
One wonders how many of these tourists would choose to return to Ballydehob – or even West Cork – were they to see human faeces and soiled toilet paper floating in the water alongside their vehicles – or have to endure the smell of it on a hot summer’s night?
And of course the saddest part of this sorry tale is that Ballydehob is not an outlier by any means.
This newspaper has regularly reported on the prevalence of untreated, or barely treated, sewage in local swimming spots and tourism destinations.
Until recently, Castletownshend was at the receiving end of a shocking statistic. It’s almost hard to believe the figure – but until earlier this year the equivalent of 400 wheelie bins of raw sewage was being discharged into Castlehaven harbour each day from Castletownshend – a figure confirmed by Uisce Éireann itself.
A new treatment plant, which came onstream earlier this year, was a game-changer for the village, but there are many more areas not as fortunate.
Deputy Cairns also noted the situation in Shannovale in Clonakilty, where raw sewage is often seen rising in a local green area of a housing estate. This situation even led to a candidate – Barry O’Mahony – seeking election on that one issue alone, in the local elections earlier this year.
And, despite a treatment plant having been constructed in Bantry in recent years, it did not include treating the raw sewage that enters the bay at an area called – ironically – the ‘bathing box’, alongside the N71 near the entrance to Bantry House.
And there are many more instances around the county of areas where faeces can regularly be seen floating in waters nearby.
In recent weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that 16 towns and villages around the country discharge raw sewage daily because their public sewers are not connected to treatment plants.
This does not include smaller discharges, not categorised as ‘towns’ – for example, the areas mentioned above in Ballydehob and Bantry are not on the list at all.
It is frightening to think how much raw sewage is being pumped into the coast around us, or rivers or lakes that ultimately run into the coast.
We may never know that figure.
It is far too easy to forget that all life comes from water, and by polluting the seas around us with our own waste, we are ultimately hastening our own demise.
What might seem like a relatively small issue of infrastructure can very quickly become life-threatening and an issue that needs to be taken more seriously.
And yet water quality rarely gets a mention on any list of election demands.
With a general election on the horizon in weeks, this could be a good time to add it to that list.
