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Longford: primary school kids learn about water and wildlife

Local kids in Longford Town learn about water quality, water bugs, and what they can do to help protect their river.

The Local Authority Waters Programme and Longford County Council supported a pilot two-day StreamScapes education project for the Camlin River, Longford Town on 26 and 27 September 2018. The StreamScapes methodology, developed by Coomhola Salmon Trust, involves short, intensive outreach activities for a river catchment involving schools and the local community. In total 48 students from St. Michael’s Boys National School and the Angling Club at St. Mel’s College participated in the project.

The workshops involved interactive discussion on water quality and biodiversity in class, followed by a short walk to the Camlin River at The Mall to investigate the bugs living in the river. The students took part in discussions with great enthusiasm and could identify many of the water bugs and make a general assessment of water quality. Afterwards students came up with some interesting ways to raise awareness on the impacts of plastics and rubbish entering rivers. The workshops were supported by Community Water Officer Karen Kennedy and Longford County Council Environment staff, and were funded under Local Agenda 21.

Karen Kennedy, LA Waters Programme

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EPA Catchments Unit

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The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

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Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

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Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.