February 27, 2003
Water Works
Duncan Stewart is presenting an environmental programme on RTE 1 called
Eco Eye on Tuesday evenings.
This week, he discussed the effect of thousands of examples of one-off housing
on the countryside (a touchy subject here in the West). Actually, he highlighted
the effect of thousands of septic
tanks leaking into water tables around the country. Given the average Irish
person's respect for health and safety standards, he doesn't paint a pretty
picture. The programme does suggest some alternatives. One was a sort of
lagoon that naturally recycles waste using plants and bacteria. The show
suggested that the disadvantage of the lagoon option is the amount of space
required.
I don't know…the country is full of bogs that will soon be excavated completely.
Fill them up.
Speaking of bogs, the programme described how a
town 'adopted' a bog. However, the pictures of youngsters cheerfully
ambling along a path through a bog evoked only one reaction for me…townies!
No youngster who had ever had to work on a bog would ever want to visit one
again (but maybe I'm just biased).