Sometimes, really good ideas aren’t that complicated. Inspired by what he calls a ‘simple pollution solution’, Fermoy environmentalist and Countywide Drains Ltd employee Brian Jacobsen, has devised a method of greatly reducing the amount of plastic entering our water network. 

Proven to be very effective in Australia, it involves fitting a modified fishing net to the mouths of pipes carrying rain water to a river – in this case the Munster Blackwater.

Standard engineering practice and a means of taking water off agricultural land, problems arise when plastic and other debris get picked up along the way and end up in a waterway via the pipe. 

Story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition