NI Water attended a meeting of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council on 5 January to update representatives on its infrastructure plans going forward and the level of investment needed for the Council area.
In its future growth plans, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has anticipated that by 2030, it will need around 9,720 new housing units and wants to generate new jobs. Large towns such as Coleraine, Limavady, Ballycastle and Ballymoney will be the main Hubs for growth.
NI Water said it is looking at how to accommodate the plans and in the short term will help, where it can, to find solutions and to look at all available options to work with Councils and developers to progress the Borough’s ambitions.
NI Water’s Head of Investment Management, Stephen Blockwell, commented:
“NI Water’s goal is to ensure we have a modern, efficient service today and in the future. While Investment is needed urgently, NI Water has a plan in place and we are ready and capable to deliver.”
The Sustainable Water 4th Annual Report points to the necessity of funding NI Water appropriately, to allow the Executive to meet its medium and long term objectives for economic growth. The report states:
“Full implementation of the Strategy will require significant financial investment over the 25-year period of the Strategy. The issue of costs and funding is of increasing concern in the current economic climate.”
Dr Blockwell continued:
“The message is clear. NI Water is ready to provide engineering solutions to short term constraints where possible. However, the full funding identified by the Utility Regulator in its Draft Determination (PC21) is required, to fulfil the vision of economic expansion for the people in our towns and cities.
“This is not a ‘wish list’ or a ‘nice to have.’ This is the blueprint that will help us ensure NI Water can deliver in a strong, modern regional economy.
“Our infrastructure plans over the 2021 – 2027 period (known as PC21) for the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area requires ca £12 million pounds of investment to upgrade wastewater assets. This is over and above essential base maintenance investment associated with our assets during PC21. This investment will make significant inroads into addressing the sewer and wastewater capacity issues and will help new housing and business development to go ahead.”
Dr Blockwell concluded:
“Significant and sustained investment is needed for wastewater and water infrastructure across Northern Ireland. NI Water knows all of the Councils’ growth ambitions, we know what needs done in each Council area and we have the plan and the skills to deliver it.”
In August last year NI Water chief executive Sara Venning, warned over "sustained and significant underfunding" for failing wastewater infrastructure Drawing attention to “chronic underfunding” and outlining the critical state of the utility in its Annual Integrated Report for 2019/20, she commented:
“The scale of the problem currently facing NI Water requires major, inescapable investment.”
In November Dr. Blockwell repeated the warning that historic and ongoing under-investment in the sewer and wastewater networks could have a significant adverse impact on growth plans for parts of cities and over 100 towns across Northern Ireland.
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