Ballingarry Tidy Towns litter pick along the Kings River is a great success

The much-anticipated litter pick with members of Ballingarry Tidy Towns and friends took place on Saturday morning last on the King’s River at 11.00am. Patrick Lydon of Nore Vision had organized this event to check on the state of health of the river and to see if litter is a problem. We were all pleasantly surprised and delighted to report that litter is practically non-existent in the portion of the river that we checked and that the water is crystal clear. Nore Vision is a project that is being funded by Leader in Kilkenny / Laois / Tipperary and Patrick Lydon is the key person in this evolving initiative for the future of the river Nore, its tributaries (which includes the King’s River which rises in the area), the lands that drain into them and the people who live and work there, which will empower communities, through activities, to become guardians of the river by working to bring together the input of interest groups, resource users, landowners, communities and the statutory sector. This initiative explores the relationships between mining and the rivers from all points of view, charting changing experiences, attitudes and practices and how the local water environment can be re-valued and enhanced, by linking with the active local history activities in both former mining areas of Ballingarry and Castlecomer, and how the two areas have connected. Patrick has already had many meetings with former miners in both of these communities and will continue to do so. It is interesting to note that last Sunday was International Environment Day whose motto is: “The Earth is what we all have in common”.
A very apt slogan in the circumstances!