The latest results from the Irish Water Framework Directive (WFD) monitoring programmes for the Rivers, Lakes, Groundwater, Transitional and Coastal Water monitoring programmes are reported upon regularly by the EPA and other bodies involved in the programme. The monitoring programme became operational on 22 December 2006.
A current overview of status for monitored waterbodies is available as the WFD Status Report for 2007-2009.
An overview of the status of all waterbodies as reported to the EU in the formal River Basin Management Plans published in compliance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive is available in the WaterMaps section of the wfdireland.ie website. This provides details of the ecological status and allows viewers of the maps to drill down to individual waterbodies on a quality element by quality element basis - chemistry, macroinvertebrates, plants, fish, hydromorphology, etc. Reports can be generated for each waterbody indicating its status, its programme of measures and the timescale by which it has to achieve its target status.
More details on the WFD monitoring results for Irish rivers, lakes, groundwater, transitional (estuarine) and coastal waters is available in the water quality monitoring section of this website. An update on Ecological Status and Chemical Status of waterbodies monitored under the WFD monitoring programmes during the 2007-2009 period was published by the EPA on 21 June 2011 - WFD Monitoring Water Status 2007-2009.
Irish WFD water quality data can also be compared at European level using the European Environment Agency Water Data Centre which provides comparative maps and datasets used primarily in preparation of EU State of the Environment Reports.
