More than €2 million is being invested by Irish Water to develop Drainage Area Plans for Galway City.

Contracts have recently been signed with RPS Environmental Management to carry out extensive surveying and mapping of the existing wastewater treatment network in Barna and Oranmore. Survey work is scheduled to start next month and will be focused on key areas such as flooding locations, pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants, areas of predicted future growth and locations experiencing operational issues at present.

Works will involve using CCTV to survey and assess the condition of over 42km of sewers, mapping an estimated 2,000 manholes, and monitoring the wastewater and rainwater flows in the network.

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Once finished, the information will be used to identify areas where urgent repair or upgrade work is required and to effectively plan investment in the wastewater treatment network.

Eunan Canavan, Capital Programmes Regional Lead with Irish Water, said: "This work is part of Irish Water's commitment to protecting Ireland's waterways and coastal areas and ensuring that the wastewater infrastructure is in place to support population growth and economic development. Much of the sewer network is in poor condition due to its age and decades of under-investment. In addition, only a small portion of it has been accurately mapped and assessed to determine its condition.

"Data gathered from this project will allow us to improve the wastewater treatment network across Galway by identifying the areas most urgently in need of upgrading and allowing us to plan our investment so that we can meet the needs of these Galway communities now and into the future."

(LM/MH)