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A €30 million upgrade has been completed on the Kerry Central Regional Water Treatment Plant.
The work involved the construction of a new Water Treatment Plant at Lough Guitane and associated upgrade works on existing infrastructure.
The new plant is located adjacent to Lough Guitane and the Finnow River, part of Killarney National Park.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin and Cllr Norma Foley, Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council, officially opened the new plant.
The new plant, which provides 51 million litres of water a day, has a hydroelectric power turbine for the intake of water, state-of-the-art water filtration, disinfection, chlorination and fluoridation capability. It also includes capacity to store 15 million litres of treated water.
Construction began on site in April 2016 and took approximately two years to complete.
Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council, Cllr Norma Foley said: "These works represent a very important step forward for the County. It is great to see Irish Water investing in projects such as this and I pay tribute to their staff and our own local authority personnel who have worked tirelessly to bring this project to fruition. I look forward to more days like today when we will again see investment that will deliver upgraded facilities and services to the benefit of the people of Kerry."
Speaking at the official opening, Minister of State Brendan Griffin added: "I am pleased to be here in Lough Guitane today for the official opening of this vital piece of water infrastructure. Killarney is rightly regarded as one of Ireland's top tourism destinations and providing a secure supply of clean, safe drinking water for the 62,000 residents here and in the Tralee and Castleisland areas, as well as the 1.2m tourists that visit the area every year, is essential to the quality of life and development potential of the area. This investment in water infrastructure brings very significant benefits to this community now and into the future."
The project has been shortlisted in the Engineering Project of Year in Engineers Ireland Excellence Awards and was recently taken off the Environmental Protection Agency's Remedial Action List.
(CM)
