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Faster action is needed, as water quality shows little overall improvement in 2025, says EPA

Date released: June 16, 2026

  • There has been little change in water quality indicators in 2025. Overall water quality remains unsatisfactory in many areas.
  • Excess nutrients from agriculture and wastewater remain the greatest challenge to water quality improvements. Phosphorous and nitrate levels are still too high in many of our waters. 
  • Some areas show improvements which is promising, but these are being offset by declines elsewhere. The scale and pace of implementation of actions to protect and restore water quality needs to be increased.

17 June 2026: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published Water Quality in 2025: An Indicators Report. The report provides an update on the key indicators of the quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal and groundwaters using monitoring data collected in 2025. 

Overall, the report shows no major change in water quality in 2025. Nutrient levels remain too high in a large proportion of water bodies. Levels fluctuate year on year and while improvements do occur, they are not being sustained. The biological health of our rivers and lakes has shown little change with slightly more than half (54%) in good or better biological quality. 

Commenting on the report, Roni Hawe, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment, said:

“Ireland’s water quality is not improving overall, and that should concern all of us. The decline in high status water bodies is a serious warning sign. These are our best waters, and once they are lost, they are difficult to recover. Clean water underpins healthy ecosystems, safe drinking water, recreation and local economies. We need to act with greater urgency to cut pollution and protect the waters we all depend on. Our actions must match the scale of the problem.  Targeted action and measures tailored to the specific challenges affecting each water body must be accelerated to shift the overall trend towards improving water quality.”

Excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, from activities such as farming, poorly treated wastewater discharges and runoff from land remain the greatest challenge. When too much of these nutrients get into rivers, lakes and coastal waters, they can cause an overgrowth of algae which depletes oxygen and chokes up the habitat for other species. 

The report highlights that positive improvements are achievable. In one catchment, the Ballyteigue-Bannow catchment in Wexford, 6 of the 16 rivers surveyed in 2025 improved in biological quality which is a welcome sign. Further assessment is needed to determine what specific changes occurred in this catchment that might have led to the improvements.

Dr Jenny Deakin, EPA Programme Manager added:

“It is important to recognise that there are localised improvements in water quality in some areas, which is very welcome. It is essential that information is collected and shared by all sectors on what measures are being implemented and where. Each sector has developed  plans, required under the Water Action Plan 2024, which outline the actions they are undertaking to protect and restore water quality. This will help to better understand which measures are working so that the best actions can be accelerated.”

Information about local water quality and the pressures impacting it is available at www.catchments.ie 

Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office 053-9170770 (24 hours) or media@epa.ie

NOTES TO EDITOR

EPA water quality reporting: The EPA publishes a comprehensive assessment of Water Quality in Ireland every three years. The previous assessment was for the period 2019-2024. The EPA reports on the indicators of water quality in the intervening years to provide an update on trends in the biological quality and nutrient levels of our water bodies. This year’s indicators report provides an update on the water quality of Ireland’s rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal, and groundwaters using monitoring data collected in the 2025 period. 

Ecological status: The assessment of ecological status is an integrated assessment of water quality. It includes dissolved parameters in the water such as nutrients, chemicals, pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen; the species living in the water such as fish, insects, plants and algae; and the physical habitat condition of each water body. An ecological status of ‘high’ or ‘good’ is considered satisfactory; a status of ‘moderate’, ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ is unsatisfactory.

Water Body: A water body is an area of water, which is usually either the whole or part of a lake or coastal water, or a section of a river or an estuary (e.g. Lough Ree is one water body whereas the River Lee is divided into nine water bodies for monitoring purposes).

Nitrate: Nitrate is a form of nitrogen which is a nutrient and essential for plant growth. Too much nitrogen in a water body can lead to the over-growth of plants and algae that outcompete and displace other flora and fauna. This excessive growth can also cause oxygen depletion and damage the ecology of our water bodies. Our estuaries and coastal waters are particularly sensitive to high nitrogen concentrations. The main source of excess nitrate in the environment is agriculture. Nitrate concentrations above the Drinking Water Standard can pose a risk to human health, particularly for young children.

Phosphorus: Phosphorus is a nutrient which is essential for plant growth. As with nitrogen, too much phosphorus in a water body can lead to the over-growth of plants and algae which disturb the ecosystem. Excess phosphorus is a particular concern for the ecological health of rivers and lakes. The main sources of excess phosphorus in the environment are agriculture and urban wastewater.

Pressures impacting on waters: The EPA has published a series of reports on the main pressures impacting on waters which are available at Update on pressures impacting on water quality. Catchment level information on water quality is available here.

Water Framework Directive (WFD): The Water Framework Directive is the overarching directive to protect and improve water quality across Europe.

Water Quality Objectives: The main objective of the WFD is to achieve at least good status in all water bodies by protecting water bodies that are at high and good status and restoring water bodies which are not achieving their targets.

Water Action Plan 2024: The national Water Action Plan 2024 (also known as the River Basin Management Plan 2022-2027) sets out the national policy and actions that are being taken by all sectors to improve and protect water quality.

Sectoral Action Work Plans have been developed and published by a number of the sectors that impact water quality. The plans provide for the tracking of national scale actions assigned to those sectors (e.g. Agriculture, Forestry, urban waste water) in the Water Action Plan 2024. The objective of the Sectoral Action Work Plans is to ensure that the sector over time will no longer be a significant pressure on water status and will include information on how the sector will address all water bodies at risk from that pressure, in line with the Water Framework Directive objectives.

www.catchments.ie: A collaborative EPA, Local Authorities Water Programme (LAWPRO) and Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage website that is used to share data, information, and resources on water in Ireland.