Pollution is destroying rivers and lakes as almost half now failing quality tests

Dead fish retrieved from the River Allow in Co Cork where about 2,500 litres of a chemical used to treat wastewater was discharged from a state-owned facility. Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald

Caroline O'Doherty

Almost half the country’s rivers and lakes are below standards needed to safeguard water quality, public health and habitats.

A deluge of chemical fertilisers, livestock waste and poorly treated human sewage is pouring into them, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said.