Debate contribution: NI Water Challenges

Debate contribution by Mrs Deborah Erskine on 8 April 2024.

MLA

Mrs Deborah Erskine

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

8 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

NI Water Challenges

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4481610

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I move the amendment to this important motion in my capacity as a DUP MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone and not as the Chair of the Infrastructure Committee. Getting our water infrastructure right is essential for development and growing our economy, to ensure that there are social and affordable homes across Northern Ireland and, not least, environmentally, in preventing overspills into our waterways. Furthermore, let us not take for granted the fact that we have clean drinking water. However, we do have a crisis in the here and now. Without the serious and long-term sustainable funding that we need for Northern Ireland Water, we are going to destroy our construction industry, wreck our economy, add to homelessness and continue the pollution of our waterways. There needs to be a fundamental rethink on how we continue to address the failures that have continued for years. Our amendment seeks to strengthen the motion by pointing out our belief in the need for that additional investment in water and sewerage infrastructure, which is critical to driving the economy and economic growth, ending regional inequalities in provision and protecting the environment. As well as that, we call on the Minister to provide a detailed options paper on restructuring Northern Ireland Water and to consider mutualisation. Recently, the Infrastructure Committee had briefings from Northern Ireland Water and a finance briefing from the Department, and the Minister was at the Committee. Evidence from Northern Ireland Water was particularly damning in relation to the crisis facing our systems without investment. My sense is that, at the moment, Northern Ireland Water simply carries out the basics. Clean drinking water is provided but, thereafter, challenges remain. As a recent Northern Ireland Audit Office report pointed out, projects related to safe water delivery have tended to be prioritised over investment in infrastructure. I must be truthful: I am not sure that many have fully grasped the level of emergency that we have reached in Northern Ireland Water. We are not hearing alarm bells ringing every day on our air waves, but we should be. On 21 February this year, the CEO of Northern Ireland Water told the Committee:

"We have more overflows per head of population, and per kilometre of pipe, than is the case in the UK because, over many years, not enough money has been spent on the sewer network. Rather than building more infrastructure, more overflows were put in place."

That is damning. We have failed in how our infrastructure meets the needs and demands of Northern Ireland. The motion is therefore timely. It comes in the wake of fresh Northern Ireland Audit Office reports, one of which is entitled 'Water Quality in Northern Ireland's Lakes and Rivers' and the other, 'Funding water infrastructure in Northern Ireland'. First, on water quality, I want to make the point that, whilst agriculture and businesses contribute to some of the pollution, we cannot escape the fact that one in eight pollution episodes can be linked to Northern Ireland Water, a body that should be intrinsically linked to ensuring best procedure and upholding government policies on protecting the environment. Once more, I suspect that the figure could be higher, given that, in Infrastructure Committee evidence sessions, it was pointed out that we are not sure exactly where all the overflows in the system are, because we failed to provide much-needed investment for camera infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the Member is correct. Questions have certainly been raised about that, and I may point to it during my contribution. Some Members may want to focus on the extent of sanctions levelled at farm businesses or to judge their contribution to water pollution incidents, but at least there are penalties. The same level of accountability should be apparent in NI Water, yet there is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that there is a double standard. Concerns around the corrosive impact of stop-start funding and budgets that simply are not big enough, whilst entirely justified, cannot be used as a convenient smokescreen for improving standards and oversight of current services. It is extremely frustrating that, eight years after the start of major reform agreed between the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and NI Water, revised waste water compliance assessment arrangements still have not been implemented. I accept that providing clarity of funding each year would help to plan for the need and for the emergency. Northern Ireland Water does not have medium- or long-term clarity on funding, and the price control process places a heavy emphasis on determining the cost of delivering the various projects but is not linked to any long-term budgetary planning. The NI Audit Office report recommended that DFI and NI Water should complete a comprehensive review of alternative funding and governance arrangements. The DUP manifesto that I stood on in 2022 called for greater investment but also the need to review how NI Water is funded.

My party pointed out the need to explore the merits of granting NI Water borrowing powers and to ensure that spending on the water network is fair to all communities and regions. The DUP brought a motion to the Assembly in the previous mandate that called for a new strategy to enhance and expand Northern Ireland's water and sewerage infrastructure, with a particular focus on ending regional inequalities. We note with regret the lack of progress to date.

Addressing the crisis in capacity is a cross-departmental need. For the Department for Communities and the Department for the Economy, without drains, there can be no cranes. Every month that passes without a sustainable approach to meeting current demand for connection to the network leads to further missed opportunities for business expansion, boosting employment and construction and providing new housing for those in need or those wanting to get on to the property ladder. A letter on 6 March to the Infrastructure Committee told of the consequences if we do not invest: 19,000 proposed homes are unlikely to be built, and 55 commercial developments are unlikely to progress, with an estimated impact on 1,500 employees in the agri-food industry. What discussions has the Minister had around the Executive table to highlight those concerns and fight for investment? The DUP also acknowledges that, as a society and as ratepayers, we must play our role and ensure that we stop any potential impact on the system. Prevention is better than cure. It is right that we reduce the amount of pollutants entering our waterways. However, let us not forget that Northern Ireland Water is the largest landowner in Northern Ireland. Are the public really seeing those assets being used effectively, particularly given the huge sums of money paid to Northern Ireland Water from the public purse? It is crucial that the Minister urgently takes forward the recommendations in recent reports to deal with the issues at hand. It is imperative that we move beyond doing the basics. Millions are spent on cleaning the NI Water system, which is right, but it is effectively self-harming; it is not sustainable. We must turn the tide before even providing safe drinking water becomes harder. Therefore, I hope that the Assembly will endorse the amendment, which strengthens the argument for investment and change.

1,199 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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