Commissioning work begins at water treatment facility

The Water Service has begun commissioning works on its £20m water treatment plant in Co Down.

The largest water treatment facility to be built to date in Northern Ireland, the three-month commissioning period will involve rigorous testing of all the state-of-the-art systems at Drumaroad, near Castlewellan.

Over the next number of weeks, Water Service scientific staff and experienced engineers from Earth Tech Engineering Ltd, will carefully phase in operations at the sophisticated treatment plant, continually collecting and analysing samples of the treated water, to bring it in line with new EU Drinking Water Directives.

William Duddy, Director of Customer Services at Water Service, said: "For the last 100 years, Belfast and large parts of County Down have been supplied with high quality drinking water from the Mournes. However, in order to comply fully with the latest standards set by the European Union, and to ensure effective protection against cryptosporidium, it has been necessary to build this advanced new treatment works.

"Once in full operation, and with more sophisticated treatment processes in use, the new works will be capable of supplying up to 155 million litres of high quality drinking water a day, resulting in an improved level of service for around 280,000 customers."

The new treatment facility forms the third and final phase of the £62m Aquarius Mourne Water Project, which has seen the replacement of much of the 100-year-old Mourne Conduit, running between the Silent Valley and Belfast, as well as the construction of new storage reservoirs and pumping stations to facilitate supply.

(MB)