Call for water rates to be considered by Stormont to help algae-hit Lough Neagh

Gerry Darby, from the Lough Neagh Partnership, at the Lock Keeper’s Cottage in Toome (Rebecca Black/PA) -

The introduction of water rates in Northern Ireland could be the key to addressing crumbling waste water infrastructure and the impact on waterways, it has been suggested.

It comes as the Stormont Executive works to halt an environmental crisis at Lough Neagh where noxious blooms of blue-green algae have covered the surface of the water across the past two summers.