Northern Ireland’s waste water system is “at breaking point” with future development in Belfast likely to be halted unless the situation is addressed, MLAs have heard.
Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) chief Sara Venning issued the warning to MLAs on the Stormont Infrastructure Committee as they visited a water treatment works in Magherafelt on Wednesday.
MLAs on the committee were given a tour of the works and learned about actions taken to ensure drinking water abstracted from Lough Neagh continues to be safe to drink.
Ms Venning said recent uncertainty of financial support and historic underfunding are having a serious impact on wastewater services.
She described the system as being “at breaking point”.
She also said that they have been asked to plan with a budget of “nearly half of what is needed”.
A recent Audit Office report found that a lack of water infrastructure is delaying or halting proposed housing developments and called for a comprehensive review of the current funding arrangements for NI Water.
In October, an NI Water report warned that Belfast Lough was exposed to raw sewage at times of heavy rainfall due to the state of water and sewage infrastructure.
The report described the need for investment in drainage and wastewater treatment as “critical”.
Speaking to MLAs on Thursday, Ms Venning said the investment shortfall impacts on the Living With Water Programme with work on the programme effectively halted.
She said this has “serious environmental risks for Belfast Lough and is likely to halt future development in Belfast”.
“Put simply, pollution will get worse and we will be putting a halt to future connections to our wastewater assets across Northern Ireland,” she said.
“The good news is that the plans are there, the background work has been done, we simply need long term investment to ensure we can carry them out.”
