River Vartry Oral Hearing Monday 12th June
The day has almost arrived and we hope all of you will be there to help support our final drive to get Irish Water to do right by the Environment.
Here is a short video that we produced for this occasion. Save the River Vartry
We start at 11:00 on the 12th of June 2017 at the Glenview Hotel, Glen of the Downs. 13th and 14th start at 9:30
It is a David vs Goliath, River Vartry Protection Society vs Irish Water kind of event. We have great stones in our little pouch that can kill a giant, but it depends on skills on the day. Are we scared? Sure! When you face an ugly giant like Irish Water, you have reason to be afraid, but sometime right wins over wrong.
They spent hundreds of thousands of euro to hire the best consultants and lawyers to defend against us, but had they used this money to educate people about saving water instead, they would have the water they refuse the River Vartry.
June 10 2017 08:40 pm | Active and Ecology and Fish and Irish Water and Politics and River Basin Management and Threats and Water Directive
June 12th, 2017 at 10:12 am
I am a primary teacher in Holy Rosary School, Wicklow Town. I also have Masters Degree in Zoology from UCD and worked for a number of years in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. This year my class have taken part in the Something Fishy Project run jointly by IFI and the Blackrock Education Centre. I have also done quite a bit of work on developing a real appreciation of water as a precious resource, and the problems caused by wasting it. I am job sharing this year, so am not in school today, but I am quite certain that the children in my class would find it difficult to understand why the plan to ‘upgrade’ the Vartry Reservoir in a way which will cause serious damage to the Vartry River, is considered acceptable. How can expect our children to make sense of the fact that while on the one hand we educate them about the priceless value of our natural environment we are, at the very same time, exploiting it in an unsustainable and damaging way. It is really very demoralising and I dread to think what kind of state the River Varty will be in when the children I currently teach become adults. I wish you all the best with your efforts to stop what is undoubtedly an unacceptable development at the Vartry Reservoir. Katherine Quirke MSc(Zoology), H.Dip.Ed (Primary)
June 15th, 2017 at 1:10 pm
Thanks for the nice message, I posted it up. I am happy anytime to come and talk to your students, adult or children and try to explain the unexplainable. This is exciting work that you do and far more important than mine struggling with the authorities to do what obviously needs doing. Or at least more rewarding! My passion is the River Vartry and it is our young that will have much more power in the future to be the protectors of the environment. There will never be a time when we do not need protectors like yourself and the children. It is just not the way it will work. Imagine when you stand by the River Vartry and look at this still rather pristine ecosystem that flows through Mount Usher. On the other bank will always be the people who see a solid stream of 50 Euro notes floating out to sea trying to dip buckets into the stream and take with greed as much as they can. That is where we are, that is where we will be until we have enough people to line both banks until everyone will see our Mighty Little River Vartry.
June 13th, 2017 at 10:55 am
Hi, Myself and a couple of colleagues are planning to show our support tomorrow 14th at lunchtime 12:00. What is the format of the hearing for when we arrive?
BR
Alan