O'Dowd Commits To High-Quality, Safe Drinking Water

Infrastructure Minister John O'Dowd has committed to ensuring homes and businesses across Northern Ireland have access to high-quality, safe drinking water.

Minister O'Dowd made the commitment during a visit to Moyola Water Treatment Works, during which he saw first-hand how NI Water's treatment and assurance processes work to provide safe drinking water.

The Minister's visit to Moyola coincides with NI Water opening the doors of several of its Water Treatment Works to stakeholders and local secondary schools so that they can witness the processes involved in treating water.

Minister O'Dowd said: "I was pleased to visit Moyola Water Treatment Works to see for myself the work being done by NI Water to ensure that people across the North have access to clean, safe drinking water. I am reassured to see the robust testing and sampling procedures in place to ensure the continuing supply of high-quality drinking water.

"Sampling and analysis are carried out 365 days per year, and these are taken from homes, reservoirs and treatment plants. This daily monitoring ensures that the drinking water supplied is safe to drink and use as normal.

"I have provided NI Water with a budget allocation of almost £500m this year, which equates to almost 40% of my Department's non ring-fenced budget reflecting the central importance of water and sewerage services to our society."

NI Water Chair Jo Aston said: "NI Water's number one priority is the quality and safety of our customer's drinking water and the role it plays in the prosperity of Northern Ireland.

"Since the 1970's, this treatments works has been supplied by raw water from Lough Neagh, where we process and supply 20 megalitres of clean drinking water per day to Magherafelt and the surrounding area. It is one of our many WTWs across Northern Ireland and is an example of the processes, testing and treatments across all our sites.

"It was a pleasure to welcome the Minister to meet our expert team today, the people who test and check our water on a daily basis. Today's visit was an opportunity to explain more about how water is treated and safely tested here and across all of NI Water's WTWs before it is supplied to customers taps at home and businesses."