Why doesn’t our local authority care about our rivers? Why do our elected Councillors avoid developing a policy for them? And why does the City Executive stonewall suggestions and requests for information about them?
When you consider how beautiful and unique our city waterways are, it is indeed a mystery. Now, the people have spoken in a comprehensive survey. But are the politicians and officials listening?
We asked the people who care the most about our waterways some questions about how they felt about them and what suggestions they had for their management and development.
We invited the rowers, kayakers, boatmen, anglers, sub-aqua divers, and environmentalists to take part. We were surprised by the number of responses we received and how impassioned they were.
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In summary, the vast majority of river users are dissatisfied with how our waterways are managed. They do not know who is responsible for them. They do not know who to turn to about them.
They consider them fair or sub-standard for their sport, unattractive, poorly managed, and full of obstructions, reeds, rubbish, and pollution. They want a unified, responsive, and participative management structure to oversee them. They want to be involved and they want to contribute.
The results of the survey have been sent to all city councillors and to the Chief Executive of the Council. So far there has been no response. Unfortunately, this is not surprising. We conducted several public workshops in 2017 and 2018 to tease out the future of Galway’s Waterways.
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Ten recommendations arose out of the workshops and were reported to the councillors and city officials. There has never been any response to these recommendations. Twenty-one civic organisations around the city said they supported a Galway Waterways Initiative. Their support was never acknowledged and made no impact.
The City Council announced the convening of a planning forum for the Waterways to begin in the autumn of 2019. This never happened. The last three mayors in succession have refused to hear a presentation before the City Council about our waterways.
City officials refuse to release a consultant’s report on the condition of our waterways received in 2016 for which €30,000 was paid. What is going on here?
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We had only one purpose conducting our survey. We want our city government to take charge of our waterways, to manage them effectively, and to develop them for our residents, for our visitors, and for the natural environment. The Brady Shipman Martin consultant’s report received by the city in 1996 said it best:
“There is enormous potential of the waterways to provide facilities for recreation, heritage interpretation, visitor attractions, and urban amenities, both for tourists and citizens alike”.
Is anybody listening?
