NI Water has set out its future investment plans for the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area during a recent meeting.

The utility met with Council representatives to set out infrastructure plans and outline the key challenges they face.

Ronan Larkin Director of Finance, Regulation & Commercial said: "NI Water is facing many challenges, not least of which is continued funding during our PC21 period (2021/22 -2026/27), to allow us to continue to operate our critical services as well as deliver on our ambitious capital investment programme."

Dr Steve Blockwell commented: "NI Water is aware of the Council growth ambitions. We have significant investment plans for the area and will continue to work closely with the Council over the coming years to facilitate these plans where possible. However, significant and sustained investment is needed for wastewater and water infrastructure across Northern Ireland.  Without sustained, adequate investment our society will have to choose between environmental protection and economic development.

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"The key message is that developers need to speak to NI Water before they submit a planning application. This will allow any capacity constraint issues to be identified as early as possible."

Early engagement with NI Water by developers is key to exploring all options to expedite the planning process. Without prior consultation the options available to the developer and to NI Water may be more limited. 

During the Price Control 21 period (2021/22 – 2026/27) the Newry Mourne and Down District Council area will benefit from approximately £109m in capital investment in upgrading Water and Wastewater assets.

Ronan Larkin concluded: "The message is clear. NI Water is ready to provide engineering solutions to short term constraints where possible. We plan to invest £2.2 billion in total during the PC21 period (2021/22 to 2026/27), with over £1bn being invested in wastewater assets. However, the full scale of the wastewater capacity issues across Northern Ireland will realistically take at least 12 - 18 years, or two to three Price Control periods, to address. It is therefore critical that the PC21 business plan is fully funded, and all future investments will depend on the provision of funding to NI Water by the NI Executive."