WISDOM: Learning from Group Water Schemes

It is a theoretically rich and empirically grounded discipline, uniquely positioned to respond to the complex social, political and environmental challenges that Ireland will face in the 21st century. 3/3 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

Geography, more than any other area of study, equips students with a breadth of knowledge and analytical tools applicable to the people and places they know. 2/3 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

It has been an honour to tell you about Roscommon and our research on its Group Water Schemes. We believe that geographical work in and about the county demonstrates the great value of the discipline. 1/3 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

A focus on the rurality of Ireland's political economy encourages us to rethink the relationship between the core and the periphery, and the very way which urbanisation, industrialisation and financialisation take place. 6/ @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

His work continues to be of relevance to Roscommon and the Irish countryside. The story map 'How Milk Went Global' is a wonderful, thought-provoking introduction to the contemporary dairy industry. 5/ arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/inde… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

Wood's (2007) concept of the global countryside, which draws rurality into work on globalisation and vice versa, was an important response to the more popular notion of a global city. 4/ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

There are of course important exceptions to this. Michael Woods (@WoodsZzp), for example, has done much to bring rural geography into the forefront of the discipline. 3/ @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

For its part, rural geography remains an empirically-oriented subdiscipline, which has been shy of engaging in geography's animating theoretical debates. 2/ @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

Unfortunately, rurality has long been a neglected topic in geographical work on political economy, where emphasis is instead placed on urbanisation, industrialisation and (more recently) financialisation. 1/ @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

For the final day of #RoscommonWeek we are looking at the county from the perspective of (geographical) political economy. @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

We have created a topological map of the Pollacat Springs GWS treatment plant in an attempt to better explore how this has been achieved. The map can be interactively explored across three phases. 4/4 waterschemes.ie/2019/06/13/a… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

In Roscommon this has been achieved in collaboration with third-party providers such as Veolia and Glan Agua, through state-sponsored Design, Build and Operate contracts. 3/4 waterschemes.ie/2018/09/07/d… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

Demand for high quality drinking water has required schemes to construct water treatment facilities that are able to cope with fluctuations in the colour and turbidity of their source waters. 2/4 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

Given the agricultural and geological challenges faced in the Rathcroghan Uplands, it is not enough for Group Water Schemes to rely wholly upon Roscommon County Council regulators or their own source protection efforts. 1/4 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

It is likely, in a future version of the EU Drinking Water Regulations, that the government will be required to protect its drinking waters. The Group Water Scheme sector is setting an example for how this might be achieved. 8/8 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

As the dairy industry presses for the expansion and intensification of dairy farming, the Irish government will face pressure from above and below to manage the impact that this will have on the country's inland waters. 7/8 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

By protecting their source waters, Group Water Schemes will not only be better able to provide consistent and high-quality drinking water, they will also bring down their treatment costs. 6/8 @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

This map from @gsigroundwater visualises the results of dye testing in the area. It gives an indication of how water moves through the subsurface karst aquifer and where that water might be secured. 5/8 gsi.ie/en-ie/programmes-and-… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

The danger was not simply from nutrients in the water, but from biological contaminants such as Cryptosporidium. This can cause crippling illness if consumed, as occurred in Galway in 2007. 4/8 waterschemes.ie/2018/09/07/b… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography

One of the schemes, Mid-Roscommon GWS, whose source we discussed yesterday in the thread on Holy Wells, had a serious incident of contamination several years ago, which rendered their source unusable. 3/8 waterschemes.ie/2018/12/07/t… @geogsocire • #RoscommonWeek • #YearOfGeography