In 1959, the Irish Government launched a strategy for the provision of regional and group water schemes by local authorities (to resolve the issue of water supply in rural areas). In the 1960s/1970s, the number of group water schemes dramatically increased often through the efforts of farm organisations and local co-operatives. In 1979, Croghan Co-Operative Society Ltd., Co Roscommon received EEC funding of IR £19,090 and Shadlough Group Water Scheme Ltd. Co. Roscommon, received EEC funding of £17,910.
GRANTS of £3 million to assist 31 Irish projects designed to improve agricultural structures have been announced by the European Commission in Brussels. These grants are the first instalment for 1979 from the Guidance Section of FEOGA the EEC'S Farm Fund.
[A list of the beneficiaries together with details of the projects and the amount of Community aid was published in the Irish Examiner, Thursday, July 05, 1979; Page: 9]
The introduction of such a water supply in the Croghan (albeit brown in colour and unpotable) facilitated the introduction of indoor toilets and bathrooms. Families would still take to their spring wells, with buckets, to collect fresh drinking water.
