Robert Allen talks to Western Lakes campaigner Tony Waldron

Tony Waldron is a tireless environmental campaigner. A thin wiry man getting on in life, his seemingly emaciated gait is at odds with his indefatigable energy and eternal optimism.

He used to be a passionate fisherman, concerned for the well being of the lakes and rivers he fished. Now that concern has become a quest to preserve the Great Western Lakes - Corrib, Mask, Carra and Conn - from pollution. And for more years now than he cares to remember he has been the public relations officer for the Carra-Mask Angling Federation, entrusted with the task of highlighting the concerns of local fishing groups, while acting also, in effect, for environmentalists and local communities on the wider ecological issues.

For the past eight years he has been trying to get the authorities to recognise the delicate nature of the western lakes and rivers. While he accepts that the 26 County State has recognised the need for environment control, the damage, he argues, is already being done. Intensive agricultural practices have damaged rivers and lakes, destroying precious fish stocks and affecting domestic water supplies.

It was a disaster, he feels, waiting to happen. ``Sadly time and increasing pressures from both our modern human life-styles and intensive farming practices and animal production have finally caught up with us. Our lakes and rivers now appear to be the innocent victims of our `we're as good as the rest' progressive Ireland. Our rush to catch up with the rest of the world, both in the quality of the way we live and the quantity of food and livestock we produce, has inevitably impacted on what is or should still be our most valuable resource, namely clean water. Twenty five years ago we had clean water in our wells, streams, rivers and lakes.''

``Although many fears and doubts were expressed over the years as to what was actually happening, the weight of opinion (including government) was to `plough ahead, keep going' and everything will be alright once we get there. We may have got there in terms of improved urban and rural living standards and in far higher yields and outputs from farming but in the process we have seriously damaged our once clean waters, although we still proclaim and live with the illusion that they are in `pristine' condition.''

If he feels he is beating his head off a brick wall, for most of the time that is exactly what he is doing. Everyone, even those in authority in Dublin and in the western counties, now appear to agree with him and others equally concerned, that Ireland's rivers and lakes are under serious threat from numerous pollution sources.

Sewage, leaking septic tanks, phosphorous-rich detergents, farming practices and overgrazing have seriously compromised the western lakes, resulting in diminishing fish stocks, expansion of aquatic vegetation, the growth of algae (multicellular plants without roots, stems and leaves) and reduced oxygen. Of all the lakes the Corrib is, according to Dr Roderick O'Connor, in the greatest danger. Phosphates and nitrates from domestic activity and intensive agriculture, fertiliser from forestry expansion, waste from the Mask and the Galway landfill at Carrowbrown and sewage from the catchment towns of Galway and Mayo have contributed to the declining water quality of the second largest lake in Ireland.

The warnings have been there for years, argues O'Connor. ``Thirty years ago Ireland's rich natural heritage of extensive unpolluted waters and abundant wild fish made the country the destination of choice for fishermen,'' he lamented last year. ``Decades of complacency, neglect and lack of any coherent long-term strategy in State freshwater-fisheries policy now pushes the fate of many Irish waterways and their associated fisheries to the brink. It does appear as if the only long-term hope for protecting the lakes lies not with the Irish authorities, but with the considerably more environmentally-friendly EU.''

In recent months, probably because of EU pressure, the 26 County Department of the Environment have finally admitted that ``changes in agricultural practices and their intensity have increased the potential for pollution'' and that ``waste water treatment systems are not adequate in all cases to cope with domestic and/or industrial loadings''.

Sadly this isn't the sweet sounding music Waldron and O'Connor want to hear. Eutrophication - nutrient enrichment of water - due largely to phosphorous run-off is the single largest water pollution problem in the 26 Counties yet Dublin wants 10 years to solve the problem. This, says Waldron succinctly, is unacceptable.

Chemical fertilisers contribute annually 62,000 tonnes of phosphorous. Animals feeds add a further 15,000, bringing the total to 77,000, of which approximately 31,000 is taken up by crops and animals. The rest eventually makes its way into the lakes.

It would be easy to simply blame farming practices - particularly the spreading of phosphorous-rich agricultural wastes and slurry on land - but that would be a knee-jerk reaction. Ireland is now an industrial country, dependent on the modes of capitalist development, science and technology for its apparent well-being. Agricultural output - once a labour intensive, community orientated activity - is now an industrial activity driven by market forces. Since EEC membership capitalist development has transformed Irish agriculture. The state therefore must take the blame for the ecological deterioration of Irish rivers and lakes. By promoting the use of chemical fertilisers and encouraging such activity as winter housing of animals who then need large quantities of silage to feed them, the state has induced the conditions which farmers operate under today. And because the farming community and the Irish economy as a whole have become so dependent on these methods of agricultural production it isn't easy to change, and certainly not overnight.

For the past few months Waldron has been patiently waiting to hear what Dublin proposes to do about the implementation of the EC directive on the discharge of dangerous substances into the aquatic environment. He also wonders when the state will fix water quality directives for the western lakes. An Phoblacht contacted the EPA about these issues, without response.

Both Waldron and O'Connor hope that those in the corridors of power in Brussels will urge Dublin to declare these delicate ecosystems areas of scientific interest or areas of national heritage, protected by enforceable and enforced regulation.

For Waldron the end of his quest is in sight. Perhaps its time we all spoke out about water quality in Ireland. Afterall we depend on it for our survival.

Cork SF slams pollution of river

On Sunday 20 July news spread of a massive fish kill on the River Martin in County Cork. The devastation was enormous. Over 100,000 salmon, eels and trout were wiped out. The river was dead. The culprit was a pig producer. Pig slurry from the farm had poisoned the river, a tributary of the Lee.

There is real anger amongst fishermen and enviromentalists as the same river had only recently recovered from a similar spill a few years ago. Because of the river's link to the Lee, the spill threatened water supplies to the city for a time. The huge danger posed by the carelessness of some involved in pig production has again been exemplified by the kill.

Sinn Féin representative for Cork North Central Don O'Leary, reacting to the news, said:

``The time has clearly come for more severe sanctions to be placed on those who destroy the enviroment with such callous disregard. At a minimum they must be made financially fully liable for the restocking and regeneration of the river.''