Derry City and Strabane District Council members have claimed that the River Foyle’s sewage levels are a threat to public health.
At a full council meeting this week, People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin proposed writing to the Minister for Infrastructure, John O’Dowd, and NI Water seeking a meeting to “provide their action plans to address the impact from Stormont’s failure to properly fund water/sewage infrastructure”.
The motion was in response to a recent report in the Belfast Telegraph that over 1,000,000 tonnes of untreated sewage is being dumped in to the river every year, which councillor Harkin said was “absolutely shocking”.
It reported that 21 sewage overflow pipes dotted along the River Foyle between the city’s three main bridges — the Peace Bridge, Craigavon Bridge and Foyle Bridge — release untreated sewage at least 1,537 times annually, according to NI Water estimates.
“It’s unfortunate that this has been publicised on the eve of the Maritime Festival,” said Cllr Harkin.
“And this is a threat to the ecosystem of the river and to the health of the residents of our district and beyond.
“We should have urgent meetings to discuss the assessment of this report, because one of the things that was lacking in previous reports was any detail about raw sewage in Derry.
“Now we’re beginning to get a glimpse of what this possibly looks like and it’s not good.”
Sinn Féin councillor Christopher Jackson said his party was fully supportive of the motion, but said the news should not have been a surprise to councillor Harkin.
“We have had the chief executive of NI Water in this chamber,” Councillor Jackson said. “And we raised this very issue directly with them.
“NI Water conceded that, while it wasn’t quantified at the time, there is raw sewage coming into our rivers, particularly in the city and district, at an unacceptable level.
“I could be sceptical or cynical that this alarm was being raised a week out from an election, and I can assure councillor Harkin that we addressed this with NI Water the last time they were here.
“If I’m not mistaken, councillor Harkin was sitting exactly where he’s sitting now and didn’t speak directly to NI Water when they were here.“
Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said: “Two hundred and sixty million gallons of s***e is getting pumped into that river, strangling it and killing it, and we can try and score points but there’s no other way to put it.
“That’s the reality of what’s in that river, which should be an asset to this city, so rather than being divisive we need to pull together, stop scoring political points, and see how we can efficiently tackle this huge problem.”
Councillor Harkin argued that any previous NI Water deputations claimed sewage dumping was only in exceptional circumstances, which he said has been shown not to be the case.
“What’s happening here is the regular, normalised release of raw sewage into the river,” Councillor Harkin concluded. “So any form of complacency is not acceptable.
He claimed Stormont “has been completely asleep at the wheel when it comes to protecting our rivers and lakes.”
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