Summary: This assessment provides an evaluation of the ecological health of Ireland's rivers, lakes, canals, groundwater, estuaries and coastal waters. The analysis is based on the assessment of biological and environmental data collected from 2,703 surface water bodies and 514 groundwater bodies between 2013 and 2018.
This assessment provides an evaluation of the ecological health of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, canals, groundwaters, estuaries and coastal waters against the standards and objectives set out in the EU Water Framework Directive and National River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021.
The analysis is based on the assessment of biological and environmental data collected from 2,703 surface water bodies and from 514 groundwater bodies over the period 2013-2018.
The report finds that 52.8% of surface water bodies assessed are in satisfactory ecological health being in either good or high ecological status. The remaining 47.2% of surface water bodies are in moderate, poor, or bad ecological status. This compares with 55.4% at satisfactory status for the last assessment period of 2010 – 2015, a decrease of 2.6%.
Coastal waters have the highest proportion of water bodies in good or high ecological status (80%), followed by rivers (53%), lakes (50.5%) and estuaries (38%).
92% of groundwater bodies were found to be in good chemical and quantitative status, accounting for 98% of the country by area. This is a 1% improvement in the number of water bodies in good chemical and quantitative status when compared with the previous assessment (2010-2015).
