Carlow town won a European-wide award for its new rain gardens designed to reduce surface water flooding and enhance biodiversity.
Carlow town took home three awards at the Entente Florale Europe Competition 2024 awards ceremony in Hungary last Saturday.
The awards celebrate local efforts towards environmental excellence.
The town took home an overall Gold Award, the President's Prize for the town’s rain garden development and a Special Characteristic Prize for the Delta Sensory Gardens in Carlow.
Barry Knowles, senior executive officer of Carlow County Council, called the win a "huge achievement for Carlow and Ireland".
Mr Knowles was one of the area engineers leading the team that delivered the rain gardens in Carlow Town
He added that the rain gardens, which won Carlow the competitive President’s Prize against competitors from across the continent was a "significant group effort".
Initially, two rain gardens were completed opposite Shamrock Plaza in early 2022.
Rain gardens are a free draining soil mix that cleans, stores and conveys runoff water to a drainage layer. Surface water runoff is directed from the street, towards the rain gardens.
"We’re greening the grey," Mr Knowles said.
As well as being aesthetically pleasing, the rain gardens in Carlow Town are designed to provide flood relief and enhance biodiversity.
After the first two rain gardens got some local media attention, the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) provided a grant for more to be developed.
There are now 16 rain gardens in the town, including the eight rain gardens opposite the Old Dublin Road which won the town the President’s Prize on Saturday.
The rain gardens in Carlow Town are the first in Ireland that have been retrofitted in an urban space, as they replaced old concrete in the town.
Mr Knowles is hoping that more rain gardens will be placed in Carlow Town.
"We'll only look to put rain gardens in where they're needed," he says.
"This is not a willy-nilly thing throughout the town."
As the last of the rain gardens was only developed in April of this year, they haven’t been put to the winter-storms test yet.
"It’s all a learning curve anyway," Mr Knowles said, adding he was hopeful they would be effective in reducing surface flooding over the winter months.
The effectiveness of the gardens in reducing surface flooding will be monitored by the local authority over the winter.
Carlow town was the only large urban town to represent Ireland at the Europe-wide awards.
The village of Ballinahown in county Westmeath also took home a gold medal at the Entente Florale Europe Competition 2024.
