This funding announcement on the Water Quality and Catchment Management Investment Area, through the PEACEPLUS Supporting a Sustainable and Better Connected Future theme, will contribute to enabling freshwater bodies in cross-border river basins to achieve good or high quality.
The projects will enable pilots for nature-based solutions to restore catchments, including implementation of necessary conservation measures, water management measures to reduce runoff, nutrient loss and co-benefits relating to pesticide losses to waterways and to reduce impacts from flooding.
PEACEPLUS is managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and represents a funding partnership between the European Union, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Executive.
Three projects will be delivered as a result of the latest PEACEPLUS funding awards:
· **The Protecting Shared Waters Project** (€7,593,610.07)**.** Led by Northern Ireland Water, this project (PSW) will be informed by scientific research and practical experience and contribute to improved water quality and benefit the drinking water supply population in the Strule and Fane (Nenagh-Bann) catchments. It will also involve restoration of peatland in the Murrins, Glenhordial and Glencurry catchments through targeted conservation measures. An important legacy dimension of the project will be the installation of an upgraded fish pass at Lough Muckno Weir. The project will develop transferrable catchment management solutions that contribute to water quality improvements which benefit citizens, landowners and other stakeholders in cross-border communities.
· **CALM Project** (€8,235,387.32). Led by East Border Region (EBR), CALM (Catchment Action for Local Management) will enhance water quality and ecosystem health in cross-border river catchments including Lough Moor, Lagan, Ballymartrim, Upper Sillees, Termon, Monaghan Blackwater, Glyde, Quiggery, Finn Tributaries, Rooting Burn and Lough Navar. One innovative dimension of CALM will be the conversion of slurry into biomethane and digestate for fertiliser. The project encompasses an extensive outreach education and awareness programme, which will engage farmers, schoolchildren and community organisations. The project’s legacy will also include an increased understanding and awareness of the importance of more effectively managing the impact of human activities on our water resources.
· **FLOW Project** (€5,155,995.57)**.** Led by ICBAN (Irish Central Border Area Network), FLOW (For the Love of Our Waters) will address the declining water quality in target catchment areas attributable to agricultural pressures and wastewater discharge. It will result in a solution designed to engage communities and make an active contribution to improved water quality in four cross-border water catchments: Lough Melvin, Upper and Lower Lough MacNean, Cladagh River and the Kilroosky Lake Cluster. The project will also result in the installation of an innovative pilot waste water treatment facility in Rossinver, County Leitrim.
The partners will work with agricultural businesses, including farmers, to encourage nutrient reduction. It will stimulate increased awareness and uptake of bioenergy approaches to manure management by landowners, which will benefit water quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the sustainability of the agricultural sector.