Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£370k down the pan ...and it’s your cash
NI Water is slammed over fines for ‘disgraceful’ river pollution
NI Water has been fined almost £370,000 of taxpayers’ money in 10 years for polluting rivers.
The Government-run agency also forked out a record £96,500 this year.
Friends of the Earth chief James Orr hit out after a freedom of information request by the Mirror revealed the fines from 2007.
He said: “How can we take NI Water seriously? They have a responsibility to provide clean drinking water yet they pollute our water. This is nothing short of a national disgrace.
“The low level of fines in no way acts as deterrent for NI Water. This company is a serial polluter who finds it easier to pay fines than clean up its act.
“Thames Water were recently fined £10million and has been forced to clean up its act.
“As a publicly-owned company NI Water needs to realise it has a legal duty to behave in the public interest. Our rivers and lakes are in a sorry state.”
The agency was recently hit with a £16,500 fine over sewage in a Co Tyrone river. Its failures also led to £80,000 in fines this year for incidents in Killinchy and Annsborough, Co Down, the second of which killed 1,900 fish.
Last year a judge slammed the agency’s “extraordinary complacency” in allowing sewage to continue flowing into the Moyola River near Maghera for 17 hours after the alarm was raised.
A spokesman for the firm defended the fines, saying: “NI Water takes its responsibility to the environment with the utmost seriousness, having invested approximately £500million in the network over the last three years, helping make our rivers and beaches the cleanest they have ever been.
“NI Water invest significant time and resources taking remedial actions to mitigate the risk of any pollution incidents arising. NI Water treats 340 million litres of waste water every day through a network which comprises over 15,000km of pipes and more than 1,000 wastewater treatment works.
“The extent and size of the network we operate means there is a risk of pollution incidents of this nature occurring. For this reason, the company is set stringent targets by the Utility Regulator to reduce pollution incidents.
“Whilst these targets have been consistently met and exceeded since 2008, on those rare instances when an incident does arise, it is a matter of the utmost regret to no one more than ourselves.”
NI Water has been paid £2.7billion in Government subsidies since it was formed in 2007 – excluding any extra paid towards its capital works scheme.
But it said it needs hundreds of millions more to cope with demand.