Improving water system to cost €50bn, Uisce Éireann tells Oireachtas group

Sustained capital investment of approximately €2 billion a year over the next 25 years will be required to maintain and transform the water and wastewater networks countrywide and address legacy deficits, Uisce Éireann has told an Oireachtas committee.In a briefing document submitted to the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts, the water utility also said the investment would be needed to improve resilience and compliance, as well as to provide additional capacity required for housing and economic growth.It said the plans to bring supplies from the river Shannon to Dublin – known as the Water Supply Project Eastern and Midlands Region (WSP) – as well as the Greater Dublin Drainage Project (GDD) were once-in-a-generation initiatives of national importance.It said big infrastructure projects progressed “through a series of interdependent stages, including business case approval, planning, land acquisition, environmental and marine consents, procurement, construction and commissioning”.READ MOREThe company said delays at any stage could affect the timing, cost and eventual benefits of investment. “Greater certainty and efficiency across planning, consenting and approvals would strengthen Uisce Éireann’s ability to progress these projects ... and ensure that essential infrastructure is available when communities and the economy need it.”In a separate opening statement to the committee in advance of a Thursday hearing, Uisce Éireann chief executive Niall Gleeson is expected to warn that the development of new infrastructure is likely to lead to disruption for local communities.He is expected to say that it was important to recognise that essential infrastructure works could have a direct impact on communities before the long-term benefits are felt. “We will continue to seek delivery without unnecessary disruption ... as we deliver these improvements.”The utility is likely to face questioning at the committee on Thursday about a €31 million “negative revenue adjustment” imposed by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) after it determined that Uisce Éireann had underperformed against targets associated with leakage and with non-domestic billing over a five-year period.Uisce Éireann will tell the committee that while it accepted the CRU’s finding, its leakage levels are now at their lowest ever levels.Gleeson is expected to say that water loss had reduced from 49 per cent in 2014 to 36 per cent nationally “and currently at less than 30 per cent for the Greater Dublin Area”.“We are fixing around 2,000 on average every month across some 65,000km of water network. The task is sizeable.”Uisce Éireann said the provision of water services for new homes was a priority.“Providing capacity for housing depends not only on individual connections, but on timely investment in treatment plants, networks and strategic infrastructure. The objective is to translate targeted water services investment into serviced land, housing capacity and sustainable growth in the locations where demand is greatest.”