MINISTER HAILS OPENING OF NEW €3.5M CARRICK WATER TREATMENT PLANT AS “FANTASTIC OCCASION”

By MICHAEL McDONNELL

michael@northern-standard.ie

THE official opening of the new €3.5 million Carrickmacross Water Treatment Plant on a hill at Nafferty, to the north of the town on Thursday last was hailed as a “fantastic occasion” by Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly TD, who subsequently unveiled a plaque to mark the event.

The Minister, who had earlier passed a group of about 70 or 80 anti-water charges protesters at the nearby Ballybay Road roundabout on his way into the plant (see story in Carrickmacross News), repeatedly sought to emphasise the importance of providing similar state-of-the art treatment plants to other areas, and he noted that the much maligned Irish Water had, also on Thursday, launched a new draft version of its plans to carry out improvements to the water and wastewater network around the country.

Carrickmacross needed 1.2 million litres of water each day, Minister Kelly had pointed out, but quality water was not something that should be taken for granted just because it was coming out of people’s taps. A lot of work went into producing it, and it was…