A watercourse is any natural or artificial channel above or below ground through which water flows, such as a river, stream, ditch, mill stream or culvert. Watercourses are valuable assets that provide us with vital water supplies and support our natural habitats and biodiversity and contribute in no small way to our agricultural, fishery and tourism industries.
Watercourses need to be protected, managed and improved so that they support the ecosystems and industries that rely on them now and in the future. However, watercourses can become a source of flooding, particularly in times of bad weather and heavy rainfall and blocked or overflowing watercourses can have significant adverse effects on communities.
Owners of land have an important role in ensuring that watercourses are managed and free flowing so that in extreme weather events the risk of flooding can be minimised.
Watercourse Designation: Values and Benefits
What are watercourses for?
- Providing a safe passage for natural flowing water
- Draining the land, both agricultural and urban
- Providing water for livestock and other agricultural use
- Draining the Roads
- Providing protection from flooding
- Providing navigation channels for boats and other watercraft
- Providing a local amenity - recreation and education
- Supporting biodiversity: aquatic, terrestrial and aerial species
- For ornamental purposes
A well maintained watercourse can play a significant role in:
- Helping to keep the land well drained
- Helping to prevent flooding by allowing water to escape efficiently
- Helping to control surface water
- Helping to prevent localised flooding – via culverts under roads, property entrances etc
- Allowing all the functions that the watercourse was designed for
Who is responsible for the management of watercourses?
Landowners are generally responsible for the management of watercourses on their lands. Where someone has a watercourse such as a ditch, stream or river running through or alongside their property, they may have responsible for its maintenance as a “Riparian Owner”. However, statutory drainage schemes were constructed since 1842 on some 16,000kms of watercourses to improve the drainage of agricultural land. Responsibility for maintaining these watercourses rests with local authorities for drainage district schemes completed up to 1945 and from this date the Office of Public Works, OPW is responsible for arterial drainage schemes it has carried out.
There is a watercourse on or next to my property – who is responsible for its maintenance?
If you own land beside, above or with a watercourse running through it, you can check on the OPW's Drainage Map Viewer, to see if that watercourse is part of a statutory drainage scheme. If it is part of a statutory drainage scheme, the maintenance responsibility rests with either the local authority or the OPW. Drainage District Schemes identified by red lines are maintained by the Local Authorities and Arterial Drainage Schemes identified by blue lines are maintained by the OPW. For some waterways, other public authorities can have partial channel maintenance responsibilities e.g. Waterways Ireland for maintenance of navigation channels, including the Barrow Navigation, Erne System, Grand Canal, Lower Bann, Royal Canal, Shannon Erne Waterway and Shannon Navigation.
For some waterways, other public authorities can have partial channel maintenance responsibilities e.g. Waterways Ireland for maintenance of navigation channels, including the Barrow Navigation, Erne System, Grand Canal, Lower Bann, Royal Canal, Shannon Erne Waterway and Shannon Navigation.
If the watercourse on or beside your land is not part of a statutory drainage scheme, you may be generally responsible for the management of the watercourse as the riparian owner. Where the land on the other side of the watercourse is not in your ownership, you may be the joint riparian owner together with the landowner on the other side to the centre of the watercourse, unless the title deeds of your property provide otherwise.
