Working together to improve our water quality

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is inviting people to join them to identify ways to work together to improve the quality of our water and waterbodies.

Lough Melvin, Co Fermanagh.

“Water is essential for all aspects of our lives. To maximise its benefit though we not only need water but we need good water quality because that is what protects public health and our environment,” explained Tim Irwin, Head of NIEA’s Water Management Unit.

“Not only is good water quality crucial for our biodiversity and ecosystems, it also supports tourism and is essential for our agri-food, manufacturing and business sectors. We tend to take water for granted so I would encourage everyone, next time they turn on a tap, to take a moment to think about just how important water is to them.

“We are hosting a series of workshops in November to allow people to learn more about how our waterways are managed and to encourage them to help us plan for the future and improve the quality of our water bodies,” he added.

Guest speakers will be there to talk about major projects they’ve carried out on some of our waterways including restoration schemes. You can also chat to specialists from NIEA’s Water Management Unit about the work they do to monitor water quality and identify sources of pollution.

Mr Irwin said there was also an opportunity for people to feed into NIEA’s annual works programme.

“We will be breaking into smaller groups to consider the quality of water in particular catchment area to see if it has improved or if it has deteriorated and reasons why. These discussions will influence our plans for future work in and around these waterways, giving people the chance to play a more active role in influencing our work and the quality of their local water,” he added.

Three workshops will be held in November. They will run from 1pm to 4pm. For more details on the events and to register, use the links below.

• The Neagh Bann River Basin District - CAFRE Greenmount College, Antrim on Wednesday 14 November 2018
• The North Western River Basin District - Omagh Enterprise Centre, Omagh on Friday 16 November 2018
• The North Eastern River Basin District - Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey on Thursday 22 November 2018

Notes to editors: 

1. The department may take photographs and videos at announcements and events to publicise its work. Photographs, interviews, videos or other recordings may be issued to media organisations for publicity purposes or used in promotional material, including in publications, newspapers, magazines, other print media, on television, radio and electronic media (including social media and the internet). Photographs and videos will also be stored on the department’s internal records management system. The department will keep the photographs and recordings for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which they have been obtained. The department’s Privacy Policy is available on our website.
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