10,000 septic tanks and 70 treatment plants around Lough Neagh - NI Water gives evidence on challenges

Environmental concerns featured heavily in questions NI Water faced at the Assembly’s infrastructure committee today. The body is responsible for not just supplying water but for Northern Ireland’s creaking sewage system.

Sara Venning, CEO of NI Water said Lough Neagh is surrounded by over seventy waste water treatment works directly around the lough alone – not including its entire catchment area.

These plants will contribute to the nutrients in the lough which contributed to the unprecedented toxic algal blooms which affected the water body last year – and is understood to be beginning to cause problems already this year.

The Lough has already developed toxic algal blooms this year – before winter has ended. A warm, wet summer was blamed as part of the problem last year.

NI Water said while water coming from its waste treatment works is treated – but has nutrients such as phosphorous which contribute to the algal bloom within it.

The NI Water CEO said: “For sure, some of the nutrient load within Lough Neagh comes from our waste water assets”. She said “quite a bit will be coming from agricultural run-off” but that they are aware of 10,000 septic tanks around the edge of Lough Neagh.

She said that around 20% of the nutrients polluting the Lough would come from NI Water’s waste treatment works.

The CEO said the body’s only responsibility was to empty tanks – so there may well be more that they are not aware of.

The Department of Infrastructure is the sole shareholder in NI Water.

Mrs Venning said the rest of the UK has more stringent water standards than NI – and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency will introduce those standards here.

The NI Water boss said that will require investment as waste water is at capacity and spills into the environment are happening more frequently than they should – but there is a plan to mitigate that.

She said that was causing a halt on development in areas where the system couldn’t take any more.

Spills of sewage have been a hugely controversial issue in England, where campaigners have accused the government of failing to act. The spills happen when the sewage infrastructure can’t cope with flood water and raw untreated sewage overflows into the river system.

There are 800-900 broken overflows in Northern Ireland which NI Water are trying to fix, which is causing delays in investment in improving the water system.

DUP MLA Keith Buchanan questioned whether property developers are getting a “rough deal” from NI Water on waste water impact assessments. Sara Venning said some developers are building hundreds of houses, so are being asked to pay for the assessments – but that they have increased staffing and housing developments have gone ahead.

The purpose of the assessments is to stop developments that the system cannot cope with, further adding to pressure on the system and environmental damage.

NI Water also told MLAs it has delivered £1bn to the public purse but it required greater investment from Stormont to do its job better. The department of infrastructure is the sole shareholder of the public body.