Do you have a river near where you live? Do you think it's a healthy one? Even though it might look nice from a distance we don't really know how well it is doing until we look beneath the surface.
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On this episode of Ecolution we look at Ireland's waterways. We visit the Camac River in Clondalkin with Aileen and Sabrina of Globe Ireland and the 4th Class crew from Clonburris NS. Antóin McDermott of the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) tells us about the state of our waters. And, we discuss a tiny creature pushed to the edge of extinction in the River Nore with artist Mary Conroy.
Did you know that Ireland has almost 85 thousand kilometres of mapped river channels? The country has 12,000 lakes, hundreds of estuaries and over 14,000 kms of coastal waters. You want water? Well we’ve got it!
Water is our most precious resource, and one that is currently under threat from drought across the planet. And according to the most recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency, Irish waters are not in good health at all.
Speaking on the show, Antóin McDermott of SWAN says: "30 years ago we had 500 rivers that were, what we call, pristine which means the way rivers should be, in the best of health. Sadly, today we have only 20 of these left. So, you could say our rivers are getting sick or dying from pollution and damage. We aim to change that around so we can bring lots of life, wildlife and health back to all our rivers."
Antóin detailed the main sources of damage. According to the EPA, the biggest impacts have come from Agriculture, Forestry and waste water treatment. Intensive agricultural practices require the spreading of artificial fertilizers. And these fertilisers leech into the ground and find their way into our waterways. Two fifths of our rivers now contain excessive nitrogen levels, making these waters less capable of sustaining healthy eco-systems.
So, today on Ecolution we wanted to take a deeper look beneath the murky surface.
We headed to Clondalkin to meet a group of students from fourth class in Clonburris NS and their amazing teacher Ms Galvin who were taking part in a river initiative run by GLOBE.
GLOBE is a worldwide science and education programme. Relaunched in Ireland in September 2017 by the Environmental Education Unit (EEU) of An Taisce with support from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
They help coordinate campaigns at schools and supports in primary and secondary schools who wish to participate in GLOBE measurement protocols in their local environment.
And Aileen Bright, the Country co-ordinator for the programme and her deputy Sabrina Moore invited us to Clondalkin to investigate the river Camac, doing kick samples and finding the bio-indicators that tell the students what state their river is in.
The class uses the Citizen Science (CSSI) sheet developed by UCC in conjunction with LAWPRO to know which were the indicators of healthy or poor water quality. https://lawaters.ie/citizen-science/
We hear lots more from Antoin McDermott of SWAN about the state of these waters. And we head to the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny to discuss a tiny creature pushed to the edge of extinction in the River Nore with artist Mary Conroy. The Freshwater Pearl Mussel, investigated through her project "A Magic Moving Living Thing"
The effects of the Climate Crisis in every country will have a huge impact. But the more healthy the ecosystems contained within any place, the better protected that place will be. And the same is true here. Healthy rivers, allowed to take their natural paths, lessen the threat of flooding downstream. Improvements in biodiversity within and around our rivers have multiple knock on effects.
Thriving populations of invertebrates in the water means more larger creatures, like fish. More fish in the water support a greater variety of bird life. And, selfishly, Cleaner water might mean we can swim in the wild again. And who doesn’t like that?!
And according to Antóin, there is hope: "The good news is that our rivers and all our waters can be restored and the ones that are healthy can be protected."
There are plenty of ways to do this such as stopping the pollution and damage from agriculture, investing in proper sewage treatment, putting the right trees in the right places so that they don’t cause pollution and damage, and not damaging the natural flow of our rivers or draining our wetlands.
Nobody wants our waters to be unhealthy, so we just need to find ways to make the changes needed urgently but in a way that works for the people who are farming, foresting, and treating sewage, who want to get it right.
There are also many amazing projects restoring waters to good health across Ireland just not enough of them.
Just like other environmental issues such as climate change we need the government and others involved to make the changes that are really needed. That’s what SWAN is trying to do.
Thanks to all our contributors today:
Artist Mary Conroy and The Butler Gallery.
Sabrina and Aileen from Globe Ireland
Antóin McDermott with SWAN Ireland.
Clonburris National School in Clondalkin and their brilliant teacher Paula Galvin.
And, todays super Brain trust contributions came from Taney Parish primary school in Dundrum, another member of the ISSN.
As we've discovered, our rivers are in trouble. But communities paying attention to them could help us turn the corner.
If you or your class would like to be part of Ecolution, we'd love to hear from you.
Email junior@rte.ie
Ecolution drops every TWO WEEKS on Wednesday at 7pm on RTÉjr Radio or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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