Dr Louise Taylor: Lough Neagh crisis is not just an ecological crisis but a public health emergency
In the last few months the highly toxic and much-reported blue-green algae has returned with a vengeance to Lough Neagh for the second consecutive summer.
This means the public cannot safely access the largest freshwater lake in the United Kingdom and Ireland for recreational or commercial purposes.
Two things of note have happened alongside this ecologically devastating reoccurrence - the Lough Neagh Recovery Plan was launched, and Queen’s University published a significant piece of scientific research on the algae.
The Lough Neagh Recovery Plan has been met with mixed reactions, affirmed in some circles, namely by the Lough Neagh Partnership, the Alliance Party and the departments.
Most political parties have been either silent or mildly critical of the plan.
Meanwhile, the environmental groups and campaigners state the plan is deficient, and the crisis will escalate without further political and departmental effective and immediate action.
Dr Neil Reid, a conservation biologist from Queen’s University Belfast, is the primary author of the research paper produced on the algae of Lough Neagh.
Dr Reid along with a team of eight fellow academics have been able to categorically establish the link between the ecological devastation and public health impact in this paper.
The results prove that the Lough Neagh crisis is not just an ecological crisis but a public health emergency.
The lough is ‘hypertrophic’, meaning dangerously contaminated because of human behaviour.
The findings were stark, due to the number of dangerous and harmful bacteria and chemicals found in the lough – the water source of 40% of the population.
One of their most shocking findings was that 80% of bacterial DNA found was not from cyanobacteria, usually found in blooms of this nature, and determined to be from human waste.
This report clearly articulates that this is a public health matter and yet the recovery plan does not mention the department for health.
The research concluded that immediate action needs to be taken to remedy this issue, namely with farmers and wastewater management.
The report also points that many of these actions are minor and low cost and low energy, but none of these recommendations coming from academics and the greatest ecologists in the country are evident in the Lough Neagh Recovery Plan.
The disconnect between experts and departments is glaringly evident when reading the recovery plan and comparing it with the scholars and thinkers of Queen’s.
This report poses many questions - but while agriculture has been reported as the main polluter, these results suggest the main health concern is not from agriculture but the dangerous levels of human waste entering the lough.
These issues are not pleasant to consider or remedy, but potentially our reluctance to face this issue head-on is why we have arrived here.
Decades of neglect and turning a blind eye have created a crisis that has been avoided for too long.
The Lough Neagh Recovery Plan looks even weaker in light of this new research and the findings, and it seems our departments and most of our political representatives are reluctant to treat this crisis like a crisis.
Dr Louise Taylor is a political ecologist and founder of Love Our Lough