Debate contribution: Flooding: Six Mile River

Debate contribution by Ms Liz Kimmins on 17 February 2026.

MLA

Ms Liz Kimmins

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

17 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Flooding: Six Mile River

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5395158

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

I thank Steve Aiken for securing the Adjournment debate. I acknowledge the distress that has been experienced by residents, businesses and the wider community who have been impacted by flooding at the Sixmilewater river. No one in my Department, including me, wants to see that level of destruction and what is, to an extent, harm being caused across the region.

As Members mentioned, I visited the Riverside area, and I did that because I genuinely care. Flooding has impacted on people in my constituency, so I know the far-reaching effects that it has on people's physical and mental health. People talked about being on rain watch, and I am always conscious, for anyone who has been affected by flooding at any stage, that it never leaves them. They will constantly worry every time they see heavy rainfall. As Members have rightly pointed out, such rainfall is becoming more frequent. Therefore, it is becoming many people's everyday concern, and it is something that they constantly have to deal with. The reality is that approximately 45,000 properties here, which is about 5% of all properties across the North, are currently identified as being at flood risk from rivers, the sea or surface water. Climate change is having an impact, and, taking that into consideration, the number of properties that will be at risk will increase by approximately 14,800.

I will cover some of that later. I do not want to go off too far now in case I lose my train of thought. We are dealing with warmer air, climate change and increased rainfall intensity, so those factors all have to be taken into consideration. The Department and, particularly, DFI Rivers have been working on that for some time, particularly after the impact of the significant flooding in 2023. It remains a challenge without continued, adequate investment in our infrastructure. Many services that we provide continue to be under strain. The work that we need to do, particularly around flood alleviation, is challenging. We know all the key areas that need investment at this point in time, and we have to make decisions around prioritisation. That is something that we have to do across the Department. As Members have mentioned, storm Chandra last month followed the third wettest autumn on record and the second wettest January, with 100·8 millimetres of rainfall recorded in a single day in Katesbridge, which is well beyond previous site records. The prolonged spells of heavy rain resulted in the significant flooding that we saw, mainly across the south and east. As Members will know, my Department is the lead Department for the strategic coordination of the emergency response to storm impacts on the road network and to significant flooding. Following the Met Office's weather warnings, we aimed to move quickly and work closely with partner organisations to mitigate the impacts as far as possible. In anticipation of storm Chandra, officials met multi-agency partners, including councils, through the established channels for considering the preparation for and management of such an incident. That led to the establishment of a PSNI-led multi-agency tactical coordination group, which met before storm Chandra began and ensured coordinated 24/7 engagement with emergency partners throughout the event. My Department's major emergency response plan was then activated, and the departmental emergency management group was put in place to consider the impacts of the storm from a departmental perspective. Our operational teams responded to over 1,000 incidents, including more than 600 flooding reports and 370 obstructions on the road network. As part of that work, staff worked continuously to clear drainage infrastructure, remove fallen trees and debris, undertake pumping operations, deploy sandbags, install flood barriers and grit the network to maintain public safety during the ice weather warning.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:52 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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