NI Water blasted as 'corporate polluters' by Environment Minister, who says deal protecting water body must end

“They are corporate polluters and should be treated as such,” said Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir, mounting a blistering takedown of the water firm in Stormont this week.

His words came as fears mount that Belfast Lough is on the verge of becoming what Mr Muir describes as “the next Lough Neagh” – heavily polluted to the point of being actively dangerous to wildlife and potentially even humans.

Over 17 million tonnes of untreated or partially treated sewage and other wastewater is already discharged into Belfast Lough every year, killing off its shellfish – both hitting the economy as the fishing industry struggles to find catch, and making environmental problems even worse, as mussels are vital for filtering the Lough’s water.

Speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Muir said: “NI Water, in its current state, is not fit for purpose.

"What is happening in Northern Ireland with regard to sewage pollution in our waterways is nothing short of a thundering disgrace. It is wrong.

"Belfast Lough is likely to become the next Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland due to the level of pollution that is occurring.”

Mr Muir took aim a deal that has effectively protected the government-owned company from serious ramifications since it was created in 2007, replacing the old Water Service.

At the time, it faced actions up to and including criminal prosecutions over pollution incidents. Many of these stemmed from problems to do with aging sewer systems across the province, which were often decades out of date – in some cases, large towns were struggling to cope with infrastructure built in the 1930s to handle much smaller populations with far less demand.

The 2007 deal states that aging sewers and “historical underinvestment” by bodies that predate NI Water have to be taken into account by officials thinking of launching action against the firm over pollution. For Mr Muir, the effect has been to protect NI Water from ramifications in a way that an ordinary company would not be.

The Minister thinks it’s time that arrangement was scrapped, arguing it gives NI Water “a bye-ball for pumping sewage into our waterways”.

“That is not tenable,” he said, adding that he’s in talks with the Department for Infrastructure and NI Water over dropping the deal, stating he wants to put the water firm “on the same platform as all other polluters in Northern Ireland”.

"It is just not tenable that NI Water should be treated differently from other polluters,” he reinforced. “It is a corporate polluter and should be treated as such.”

A spokeswoman for NI Water stated the firm feels it is already being treated as a corporate polluter, as every case that goes to court “references the history of prosecution offences” against them, and added it’s up to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) to prosecute.

“NIEA statistics show the vast majority of incidents attributed to NI Water are a low severity rating, which we understand do not meet the threshold for prosecution,” she said. “For medium and high severity incidents a robust enforcement policy is applied by our regulator, which has resulted in many prosecution cases and associated fines.”