Galway Bay fm newsroom - Untreated sewage is still being pumped into water at 44 locations across the country, including Galway.
A new Environmental Protection Agency report found waste water treatment in over a quarter of Ireland's large towns and cities is below public health standards.
Oughterard, Athenry and Gort are three urban areas where the collection and treatment of urban waste water did not meet European standards in 2016.
The report from the EPA also shows that raw sewage was still being discharged into waterways in Roundstone, Carraroe, Spiddal and Ahascragh.
The EPA does acknowledge notable improvements and upgrades in 2016 to increase the capacity of the treatment plant serving Galway city.
The environmental watchdog took five legal cases against Irish Water in 2016 for breaches of waste water discharge authorisations.
One case related to Athenry for a failure to carry out overdue upgrades to treatment infrastructure and Irish Water was fined more than 10 thousand euro as a result.
The EPA report also found that waste water discharges were contributing factors to the poor quality of bathing waters in Clifden and Ballyloughane in the city.
In 59 locations across the country waste water is the sole pollution threat to waterways, with almost one quarter of these in Galway and Donegal.
