Northern Ireland Water (NIW) opened a modern Waste water Treatment Works in Portrush last month as part of a £45 million North Coast Scheme. The new works are designed to comply with the strictest EU standards and will be able to treat up to 54 million litres of waste water every day from Castlerock, Articlave, Coleraine, Portstewart and Portrush.
Regional Development Minister, Conor Murphy commented that, "The North Coast boasts some of the finest beaches in the north and the need to safeguard and improve the quality of local bathing waters here is paramount. This £45 million investment is indicative of the efforts being made by NIW to raise the standards of waste water treatment and ensure environmental improvements right across the north."
The scheme represents one of the most complex waste water projects ever undertaken in Northern Ireland and spans a distance of around 16km. In addition to these new works, the North Coast Scheme has included the building or refurbishment of 16 pumping stations, the laying of 25 km of new sewers and the construction of a 1,200 metre long sea outfall.
By 2010 NIW will have invested £492 million in waste water treatment and collection systems and £174 million in water treatment and storage systems. Director of Customer Services, William Duddy, stated that, "There is an urgent need to address the issues arising from the legacy of under-investment to enable us to match or exceed performance levels of similar UK water companies by 2015. For a number of reasons, money that should have been spent on water and sewerage down the years was not. NIW is now addressing this issue in a fundamental way that will produce real benefits for our customers in the future."
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