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South Eastern River Basin District

The EU Water Framework Directive is an important piece of EU environmental legislation which aims at improving our water environment. It requires governments to take a new holistic approach to managing their waters. It applies to rivers, lakes, groundwater, estuaries and costal waters. Member States must aim to achieve good status in all waters by 2015 and must ensure that status does not deteriorate in any waters.

The Water Framework Directive establishes water management at the level of river basins. The River Basin District Management Scheme has been set up to establish an Integrated Monitoring & Management System for all waters within the South Eastern River Basin District. Kilkenny County Council, along with other sectoral interests in the south east of Ireland, is part of the management structure for this River Basin Project. A dynamic programme of management measures has been finalised as part of the River Basin Management Plan. The Draft Plan for the South Eastern River Basin District was published in December 2008 and the final plan was adopted in 2010.

South East River Basin Plan PDF