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Summer swimming ban for Sandymount bathers

Sandymount Strand is closed to swimmers for this summer, Dublin City Council has confirmed.

The strand will have signs warning that swimming could cause illness.

The council has said that most sources of pollution are from dog fouling on the beach.

The beach was classified as having poor water quality in 2023 and, as a result, a bathing prohibition will apply for the 2024 bathing season.

Sandymount Strand had a sufficient water quality rating in 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Bacterial limits

Annual water-quality ratings are generally calculated using monitoring results over a four-year period and are assessed against stringent bacterial limits to protect bather health.

Dublin City Council reported that the main sources of pollution are:

• Contaminated streams,
• Misconnections,
• Sewage discharges and
• Faeces from dogs and birds.

The Dublin Bay Bathing Water Taskforce was established in 2019 to help identify and fix pollution sources impacting on bathing-water quality in Dublin Bay, including Sandymount Strand.

Works to remove/upgrade urban waste-water pressures discharging to the catchment are ongoing by Uisce Éireann.

Programmes to identify and fix misconnections are also ongoing by the local authority.

Dublin City Council has installed dog-dirt-bag dispensers at bathing-water entrances and improved signage in relation to responsible dog ownership.

A bathing water taskforce is to identify where sustainable urban drainage could be implemented to reduce the volume of water in the storm water network.