SEVERAL Dunmanway property and land owners will have to comply with compulsory purchase orders (CPO) issued by Uisce Éireann (UÉ) in order for them to deliver the Dunmanway Wastewater Network project.
The public utility company placed four full pages in The Southern Star last week outlining their plans for the CPO, which pertains to some lands, permanent wayleaves, temporary working areas, and rights of way for the project.
UÉ said the CPO process allows certain statutory bodies the ability to acquire land for projects, for the ‘common good’.
‘The Water Services Act 2007 gives Uisce Éireann the power to formally acquire lands for the purpose of delivering public water and wastewater services throughout Ireland.
‘Each landowner has been contacted directly and sent the form of notice, drawings of the affected land and a cop of the CPO.’
The project is currently in the detailed design phase and involves upgrades to the trunk sewers and pumping stations, which should reduce the risk of overflows out of sewer floodings and improve the water quality of the ‘receiving environment’, typically rivers.
UÉ maintained that this project does not include work at the Dunmanway waste water treatment plant, as this is a separate project.
Locals and public reps who have been campaigning for an urgent upgrade to the plant were recently told that it could take up to seven years for it to happen.
This means that the town will be unable to deliver housing, a new mixed national school, or a planned regional autism centre for adults until the upgrades are done.
The Dunmanway Waste Water Treatment Action Group and the town’s chamber of commerce said that the planned CPO and works mark an investment by Uisce Éireann in the town’s waste water treatment network, however ‘they will not resolve capacity issues at the treatment plant and the current impasse on new connections to the waste water network.
We, as well as public representatives, continue to engage with Uisce Éireann and Cork County Council to find a timely solution.’
Fine Gael Senator Noel O’Donovan raised the issue of the delays to the plant upgrade in the Seanad earlier this week, calling on the Minister to ensure the funding for the upgrade works is provide in the next investment cycle under the National Development Plan 2021 to 2030.
