Hundreds of housing developments across Northern Ireland are at risk due to a lack of wastewater infrastructure, an MLA has said.

Sinn Féin's Martina Anderson commented on the issue following a recent visit to the Belfast Waste Water Treatment Works. The Infrastructure Committee visited the site to hear NI Water's future business plan.

The Foyle MLA has now called for a "proper" investment in wastewater infrastructure to address the issues.

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"Across the north, hundreds of developments are at risk as a result of the lack of adequate wastewater infrastructure," Anderson said.

"This is causing delays to much-needed house building and stifling economic growth.

"NI Water's future business plan goes a long way to address this, but it cannot deal with all of our wastewater problems due to historical underinvestment.

"A decade of Tory austerity has stripped the north of hundreds of millions of pounds of funding, funding that should have gone into essential public services like water and sewage. 

"We need to properly invest in our water and sewage infrastructure throughout the north, tackle regional inequality and grow the economy  in a sustainable way."

(CM/JG)