Lough Neagh provides 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water
NI Water doesn’t appear to have made any changes to water treatment or testing since the ‘proliferated growth’ of toxic blue-green algae that’s ‘killing’ Lough Neagh.But pollution from nitrates and phosphorous have been ebbing into it for decades and this summer’s climate related heatwaves sparked the spread of toxic algae which can harm people and kills animals.
Ulster University freshwater scientist, Dr Joerg Arnscheidt, says he doesn’t “think there is an easy fix for something we messed up over decades”. “That’s a constraint and even the nutrients that have accumulated - there would be a considerable lag time before the lake would return to a different state where you wouldn’t have those blooms.”
“If this is such a toxin in the water, green-blue algae, what have they [NI Water] to do to treat the water to make is safe to drink?A NI Water spokesperson said: “NI Water monitors it’s raw water intakes from Lough Neagh and the final treated water produced at its treatment works on a daily basis, to ensure that drinking water supplied to customers meets strict drinking water quality standards.”
When ‘drinking water’ from natural sources is disinfected with chlorine to kill bacteria and viruses, it can create byproducts like Trihalomethanes which can also cause health issues.NI Water has a statutory duty to test for THMs and according to their 2022 statistics, they tested 429 of 26,882 water samples - five of which breached the 100 micrograms per litre.
“NI Water have a robust testing and sampling system which sees over 120,000 samples lifted and analysed each year. Sampling and analysis is carried out 365 days per year.“429 Total Trihalomethanes tests were carried out in 2022 as the required amount, to meet the frequency of testing requirements of the Water Supply Regulations 2017.
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