The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has published a report urging the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to urgently adopt an overdue plan designed to improve Northern Ireland’s water quality.
Under its statutory functions, the OEP audits the implementation of environmental policies and regulations, and files reports on any structural flaws or inadequacies found.
The DAERA is subsequently required to respond to these audit reports before the Northern Ireland Assembly within three months of its publication date.
Recently, the OEP carried out a review of key water quality legislation – the Water Framework Directive (WFD) Northern Ireland (NI) Regulations – and assessed how it was being implemented by DAERA and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) through River Basin Management Planning (RBMP).
The WFD NI Regulations require DAERA to develop and roll out River Basin Management Plans every six years, however, the latest plan, which was due to be published in December 2021, has yet to be finalised.
This delay in publication is postponing the progress of much-needed policy initiatives to address lagging water quality in rivers, lakes and coastal waters across the region, according to the OEP.
Speaking about the report, chief executive officer at the OEP, Natalie Prosser said:
“Our report finds that although the approach of the WFD NI Regulations is broadly sound, it is not being implemented or delivering as it should for Northern Ireland’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters.
“This paints a very worrying picture. Unfortunately, we don’t have far to go to see the serious consequences when water quality is neglected, as the ongoing crisis at Lough Neagh shows.
“Our report identifies the urgent need for DAERA to publish the latest RBMP and put it into action. These plans are important because they set out the objectives and measures needed to protect and improve waters in Northern Ireland.”
The OEP’s report also recommends that the draft RBMP should be strengthened through the inclusion of specific environmental objectives for all individual water bodies, alongside a comprehensive suite of practical measures and funding required to achieve these objectives.
“We offer recommendations on how the current draft plan should be improved so it will have a greater chance of success when implemented. We hope the Northern Ireland Executive and DAERA will find these recommendations helpful,” Prosser added.
Water quality
Only 31% of surface water bodies in Northern Ireland are reported to be in good ecological condition, which is a drop in the corresponding figure of 32% found back in 2015, indicating a regression in water quality in the region, the OEP found.
DAERA aims to deliver 70% of water bodies in the region to a ‘good status’ by 2027, however, the failure to implement the WFD NI Regulations effectively means that this target and others are now unlikely to be met by a “considerable margin”, according to the OEP report.
“This failure to meet the 2027 target will have a detrimental knock-on effect on the Northern Ireland Executive’s other environmental aims, such as the ‘excellent water quality’ goal in the draft Environment Strategy and ‘thriving, resilient and connected nature and wildlife’ goal.
“There needs to be stronger leadership from the Northern Ireland Executive in implementing the WFD NI Regulations. It must speed up and scale up its efforts to protect and improve its waters,” Prosser maintained.
While not wishing to see any further delay in the completion of the draft plan, the OEP made 16 recommendations to the Northern Ireland Executive, Northern Ireland Assembly and DAERA designed to enhance the prospects of the water environment.
It recommended that DAERA considers how best to engage in a new public consultation which would bridge earlier engagement gaps and to conceive of a supplementary delivery plan to support the final RBMP if needed.
In the course of preparing the report, the OEP identified a number of areas where DAERA may not have complied with the requirements of the regulations which include a lack of environmental objectives and measures for individual water bodies in the draft RBMP.
DAERA now has three months to issue a response to the report before the Northern Ireland Assembly.
“This gives DAERA a chance to set out its own view on these issues and any action it intends to take. Once we have seen that response and any further relevant information, we will decide what further steps may need to be taken,” Prosser said.
Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, Andrew Muir said: “I welcome the publication of this report and thank the OEP for its work on this review. I take its findings extremely seriously.
“We know that, in the past, we have not got the balance right when it comes to policy to protect water quality and we recognise that there is much more work to do. I am committed to taking action and meeting the challenge together with others.
“I will consider the recommendations in the report and in due course my Department will set out our position on each recommendation made in relation to DAERA and the NIEA and the actions we are going to take which will be subject to Assembly scrutiny before it is laid in the Assembly,” said Muir.