Nearby, an old stone bridge with elegant arches frames the river channel and provides nooks for roosting bats among the stonework, emerging each evening to fly low over the water as they hone in on small flying insects near the water surface. Some late emerging mayflies might still be out on the wing, along with caddis flies, stoneflies, and other aquatic flies. Invertebrates such as these are the basis of the rich webs of life that have been living in and alongside Irish rivers for thousands of years.

Long-living eels linger discreetly among the rocks and crevices on the riverbed, blending in with the browns so they won’t be seen by any potential predators. Juvenile trout swim about too, alongside salmon, who spend their first few years in the river before venturing out on their epic adventures across the north Atlantic.

But all of these animals and their interdependent lives need good water quality in order to survive and reproduce successfully. One of the most vital elements of healthy waterways is plenty of dissolved oxygen in the water. When rivers and lakes are overloaded with nutrients, this depletes the oxygen levels, so that aquatic animals struggle to breathe, especially in the early stages of life. Reduced levels of dissolved oxygen in the water column eradicates the most sensitive animals and reduces the abundance of many other species.

Cumulatively, this has resulted in the loss of viable populations of mayflies, of crayfish (the main food of otters) of freshwater mussels, and aquatic insects. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happens when the base of the food chain collapses. Dippers, kingfishers, bats, trout, salmon, eel and all the rest are sorely impacted by the decline in food availability.

The lives of millions of aquatic animals no longer able to survive or reproduce in Irish rivers and lakes make up the millions of untold stories behind the water quality data published by the EPA in mid-June.

After a decade of steady decline in water quality, this most recent report reveals how there have been no significant improvements in Irish rivers, lakes and estuarine waters in 2023. Improvements seen in some rivers and lakes are outnumbered by declines elsewhere. Among the rivers found to have deteriorated further in 2023 are the Nore, Suir, Barrow, Shannon, Lee, Laune, and the Feale.

The report also confirms, again, that nutrient pollution from intensive agriculture continues to be the main driver of declines in water quality, with almost half of rivers containing too much nitrogen for healthy ecosystems to exist.

A shocking 40% of rivers are overloaded with nitrogen, especially high levels detected in the South East and Midland and Eastern regions. Most of this nitrogen comes from farm runoff.

After agriculture, insufficient wastewater treatment is the second most significant contributor to the problem.

That pollution continues, is despite substantial effort and investment directed at water quality measures over the past twenty years. As part of my investigations with Eco Eye, I have visited dozens of inspiring community projects that offer hope by working to restore rivers. There are rivers trusts, community groups, angling clubs, and conservation initiatives all over the country who put great effort, often on a voluntary basis, in to reinstating fish spawning habitats, controlling invasive species, and eliminating point-source pollution. A comprehensive local authority waters programme offers promise too.

These efforts are prompted in large part by the Water Framework Directive as well as by the risk that Ireland’s derogation from properly implementing the Nitrates Directive will be discontinued as failures to improve water quality continue. This most recent data however, confirms that such measures will never have the desired effect of brining rivers back to good health, until nitrogen levels are reduced to match the carrying capacity of each catchment. Denial will not work either.

Much of the evidence is to be found in estuaries, where nutrients washed out through rivers end up trapped in the silty, estuarine muds, where abundant green algal growth is a visible sign of dangerous excess of nitrogen pollutants. The recent data details 20 estuarine and coastal water bodies with excess nutrient pollution, most of these being the result of nutrients from intensive farming on the free draining soils in the south and southeast of the country collecting in estuaries along the eastern, southeastern and southern coastlines.

Just days after the EPA report was published, an enormous chemical spill occurred on the River Allow. The Allow is a celebrated special area of conservation. The spill has killed every fish in a five-kilometre stretch of the river, including trout, salmon fry, lamprey, and eel. Each of these are protected species on account of rapidly declining populations. A water treatment plant operated by Irish Water reported a spillage on the river that is suspected to be associated with the fish kill.

The slow, cumulative pollution resulting from agricultural intensification; the pollution arising from inadequate waste water treatment, and the horror of large-scale fish kills from toxic chemical leaks — each of these are symptoms of a disregard for the rivers and lakes that for millennia our forebears considered sacred. Throughout known history, people have revered waterways, often leaving votive offerings in and around springs, rivers and lakes, as a mark of respect and gratitude for the life they bring to the world. Now, we have been conditioned to accept the disappearance of aquatic life as a consequence of necessary progress. We even endure elected politicians and industry leaders who decry the scientific evidence as ‘fake news’.

Ireland is in desperate need of a seismic shift in our attitude to rivers, lakes and all the life that they contain. It is not only mayflies, damselflies, trout, salmon, dippers and kingfishers who rely on each other for survival. We too depend on healthy waterways. It is time we declare that what has long been accepted is actually unacceptable.