The Catchment Community Fora are structured, voluntary fora, bringing together local individuals, community groups, and stakeholders to collaborate on improving water quality in their catchment.
It is part of a national pilot, led by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) under the Water Action Plan 2024, aiming to enhance public participation in water governance.
LAWPRO was tasked through the Water Action Plan 2024 with designing a national model for Catchment Community Fora. An initial scoping exercise included undertaking five in-person regional workshops and an online survey of participants. Workshops were held in five pilot catchments: Slaney, Boyne, Mal Bay, Galway Bay SE, and Newry-Fane Glyde-Dee (Oriel). The outcomes from the workshops are being used to co-design methods to gather input on the roles, structure, and governance of Catchment Community Fora.
Following on from this, LAWPRO will set up innovative Catchment Community Fora in five pilot catchments in Ireland. The main objective is to trial different approaches to the implementation of this model and framework and test approaches to facilitate active public participation in the Water Framework Directive Governance Structures and support public involvement in improving and restoring water quality in the pilot catchments, as set out in article 14 of the directive.
This pilot began in September 2025 and will run until January 2027. At the end of this pilot, LAWPRO will be responsible for undertaking a review and for co-developing a series of recommendations to inform a proposal on the rollout of a national Catchment Community Fora model and framework.
The locations of the five pilot Catchment Community Fora are:
Each Catchment Community Forum will be represented by individuals from:
Members of each respective Catchment Community Forum will be expected to:
LAWPRO will provide:
