A major upgrade of the Terryland Water Treatment Plant will force City Hall to borrow €1.6 million, leading to a hike in the water charges rate for city businesses.
This is the view of Fine Gael councillor Brian Walsh who said he will not be supporting any such hike in the charges, saying it would be “unacceptable”, especially when Galway has suffered three water crises in the past two years; cryptosporidium, E-coli, and lead contamination.
The Galway City Council is currently upgrading the Terryland Water Treatment Plant to increase the production capacity from 35,000m3 per day to 55,000m3 per day.
An application for funding totalling €3,636,883 for this project was sent to the Department of the Environment in December 2007. The Department approved funding at 73.2 per cent of the approved costs.
As a result, City Hall estimates there will be a shortfall in funding of €1,592,000. A letter has now been distributed to councillors seeking their approval for City Hall to raise a loan of €1.6 million. However this could result in businesses throughout the city having to endure a hike in water charges in order that the load can be paid.
“Business in the city has been affected by these incidents and have suffered and I will not support an increase,” Cllr Walsh told the Galway Advertiser. “We are sick of hearing there is money available for water projects and we were accused by Fianna Fáil ministers of not drawing down available funds, yet here we are forced to borrow money for Mutton Island that the business community will have to pay for.”
