Donegal County Council has been asked to put forward a case for grants for domestic rainwater harvesting.
Independent Councillor Michael McBride has said that a grant, similar to the Croi Conaithe grant, would encourage rainwater harvesting in every house and business in the country.
The use of rainwater, he said, would lower demand on current domestic supplies and could be used for flushing toilets, washing cars, power washing and any other use of treated water supplies around dwellings, farms and industrial settings.
Cllr McBride was speaking during a motion at Monday’s council meeting when he pointed out the high costs of treating water, only for much of it to go to waste.
“I think it would be a very sensible thing to do – work with the water supplies that we have and put the investment into the infrastructure like pipelines rather than wasting resources,” Cllr McBride said.
Looking back on the flash flooding in Killybegs last weekend, Cllr McBride said that he believed rainwater harvesting would have taken a percentage of water from the rain going down.
“I’m not saying it’s a solution but if it was taking 20% of the water that fell, off roofs and into tanks, wouldn’t it be a great help to areas suffering from flooding?”
The motion was seconded by Independent Cllr Declan Meehan, who said: “Given the fact we live in one of the wettest counties in one of the wettest countries in Europe – it’s very difficult for the public to stomach when we have a notice issued by Uisce Eireann about the need to preserve water.”
Cllr Meehan said that diverting water usage from rain harvesting would be very beneficial for the environment, for costs and to address some issues around outdated infrastructure in the county.
Upon the motion being adopted, Donegal County Council agreed to write to the incoming Housing Minister regarding grants for domestic rainwater harvesting.
