Maynooth scoops Value Water award

The Tidy Towns Committee of Maynooth, Co. Kildare today received a Value Water Award at the East and Midlands Regional Tidy Towns Awards Ceremony 2015. Irish Water, Ireland’s national water utility responsible for providing and developing water and wastewater services throughout Ireland, sponsored the Value Water Award, which recognises communities that have made a commitment to saving water. This is the first year the Value Water Award has been given.

Maynooth is one of four large towns across Ireland that won the Award in the Large Towns category. Maynooth won the Best Kept Large Town award in the 2014 Awards and used the prize money from this to buy 5 water butts from the schools in the town and the Scout Unit. Duke’s Island in Maynooth Harbour which was previously used as a dumping ground for reed cuttings is now being used by nesting water birds. Waterways are used by many clubs and groups for various activities such as canoeing, fishing and boating and three bug hotels have been installed beside rivers in the town to encourage people to visit them.

Mattie Callaghan, Chairman of the Maynooth Tidy Towns Committee said, ‘‘On behalf of the Committee I am delighted to accept our Value Water Award. A large number of people can take responsibility for this Award and already we are seeing excellent examples of the commitment to water conservation in our town.’

Commenting on the Awards, Roisin Bradford of Irish Water said, ‘Irish Water is very proud to sponsor these Awards which we hope will lead the way in inspiring change in conserving water at a local level. It is especially heartening to see the work carried out by young people in the communities that won these awards. Educating young people to the importance of water conservation means we can assist in minimising our impact on the environment and protecting our water resources for future generations.’

There were four Value Water Award winners in the Small Town category; these were Abbey, Co. Galway, Carrigart, Co. Donegal, Ballintubber, Co. Roscommon and Emly, Co. Tipperary. The four winners in the Large Towns category were Sligo, Co. Sligo, Westport, Co. Mayo, Greystones, Co. Wicklow and Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Each winner received a prize of €1,000.