Member's statement: River Pollution

Member's statement by Mr John Blair on 9 April 2024.

MLA

Mr John Blair

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 April 2024

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

River Pollution

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4481813

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I rise to make a statement on the subject of river pollution. I will attempt to highlight some of the practices that contribute to that and to make an appeal that all of us start to deal with the issue properly. Regrettably, I have all too often had to raise the matter of pollution since joining the Assembly in 2018, through comments here, correspondence to DAERA and, of course, through Assembly questions for oral and written answer. Since the start of this year, I have had, through my constituency office, a number of reports of suspected pollution or threat of pollution on the Six Mile river due to slurry spreading in the Ballyclare and Doagh areas, in particular, in my South Antrim constituency. Those have been reported to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), and one incident has been confirmed as spreading during the closed season and is still being investigated. There have been many other incidents of pollution in my area over recent years. I should point out that both NIEA and DAERA have been prompt with their follow-ups and replies to the points that I have raised with them. I also welcome the fact that the AERA Minister has committed to an environmental governance review and to tackling the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh. However, the scenes at Lough Neagh and on its shores last year and the fact that none of Northern Ireland's rivers is currently of good classification shows clearly that all policies and practices on this need serious and urgent review. The south Antrim river to which I refer today flows into Lough Neagh, as do many other rivers, of course, in the lough's catchment area. In what remains of this Assembly mandate, we must consider those ecosystems and living environments and their survival carefully in policy, regulation and legislation. Alongside Alliance colleagues, I have stated that our waterways and Lough Neagh, in particular, need a series of actions from those of us who legislate. They include an independent environmental protection agency, as previously promised; increased fines and penalties for polluters; investment in our waste water infrastructure; support for nature-friendly farming; and the creation of a duty for inter-agency cooperation and an integrated management plan. What I raise today is essentially a local issue, but the circumstances and the environmental threat could be replicated as an example of any of our waterways across Northern Ireland. Last month, I reflected publicly on the 'State of Our Rivers' report by the Rivers Trust in 2024, which told us that none of our rivers was of "good" overall status and that 12% were "poor" or "bad". Shortly after that, the Northern Ireland Audit Office's report on water quality highlighted no improvement in our river quality and diminished improvement in our lake quality since 2015. The lessons are clear: we must do better, and we must start to do better as soon as we can.

486 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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