NI Water has issued a statement stressing that the company has “no concerns about the structural integrity” of the Silent Valley or Ben Crom Reservoirs.

Photo: Silent Valley Reservoir

The move follows recent press coverage highlighting concerns over the safety of Northern Ireland's two largest reservoirs which supply most of Co Down and a large part of Belfast.

Together, the reservoirs hold a combined five billion gallons of water and are capable of supplying 30 million gallons of water each day.

A report in the Belfast Telegraph last week said news had “emerged that planning applications for developments close to Silent Valley and Ben Crom reservoirs are being held up until the work is completed.”

NI Water has emphasised that ”safety has always been, and will always continue to be, its number one priority.”

The water company has given assurances that its management and maintainance of reservoirs “follows the spirit of the Reservoir Act 1975.” This includes regular inspections as well as ten yearly (Section 10) inspections carried out by an independent Reservoir Panel Engineer.

The latest Section 10 inspections carried out in April 2018 highlighted a number of items of work to be undertaken to ensure the reservoirs continue to remain safe into the future.

Photo: Rossographer, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia

NI Water commented:

“This is to be expected and is not a reflection of poor maintenance practices but is rather to mitigate against deterioration into the future.”

The statement said the company will proceed with the identified work, ensuring it is completed as per the recommendations of the Independent Reservoir Panel Engineer. “This will ensure the maintenance of the Reservoirs continues in line with good industry practice.” NI Water said.

However, the water company has not gone into any detail on the type of work it needs to carry out, nor has it provided any indication in terms of timescale.

According to NI Water, the issues regarding planning applications have arisen due to how monitoring reservoir management has changed, rather than any actual change in the company’s reservoir inspections and maintenance. DfI Rivers and DfI Water Policy are working to try to find a resolution to this issue with planning applications, the utility added.