An event has been held to mark the completion of Irish Water's Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project.

The Cobh Networks Contract work means raw sewage from Cobh town is now treated, while also ending the decades long practice of discharging the equivalent of 40,000 wheelie bins of raw sewage into Cork Harbour every day.

Farrans Sorensen Joint Venture, which worked on behalf of Irish Water to deliver the Cobh Networks Contract, asked pupils from national schools in Cobh to submit an entry to their art competition with the theme 'A cleaner harbour – what it means to me'. 

12-year-old Honor Cronin's drawing from St. Mary's National School was selected as the winning entry in the competition. Her piece shows the positive impact of the Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project as everyone worked together to clean up the harbour.

This winning artwork will now take pride of place beside Irish Water’s Old Town Hall Pumping Station, one of five pumping stations and over 7km new sewers completed in Cobh and working unseen underground to collect and transfer raw sewage from Cobh Town for treatment.

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Competition winner, Honor said: "I am so proud that my drawing was chosen out of all the entries as the winner of the competition and I'm really happy that it will be seen by everyone in Cobh. I wanted the drawing to show the difference in the water before the work and now that the project is finished and helping to keep the water in our harbour clean for us all to use – I'll be using my new swimming hat in the water when it's a bit warmer."

Déaglán Healy, Project manager of the Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project added: "Honor's drawing will now take pride of place beside the Old Town Hall Pumping Station along with a plaque linking the image of a cleaner harbour to the new network completed as part of the Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project that is working hard underground to make sure that raw sewage no longer discharges from Cobh Town.

"I'd like to thank all the communities around Cork Harbour and the Cobh community represented here today by Johanna Murphy, President of the Cobh and Harbour Chamber, Hendrick Verwey, chair of the Cobh Tidy Towns and Noelle Lane, Principal of St. Mary's National School. The patience and cooperation from everyone has led to the successful completion of the project. By ending the discharge of such a large volume of raw sewage into Cork Harbour, this will hopefully allow for the area to grow both socially and economically, and most importantly, it will help to keep our harbour clean.

"The enormous task that was this project has been recognised by Engineers Ireland as the best Infrastructure Project in their Engineering Excellence Digital Series and is now in the running for the Engineering Endeavour of 2021; which will be decided by public vote."