There will have to be a move away from intensive farming around Lough Neagh if it is to survive, campaigners have said, as the noxious algal blooms that last year devastated the vast body of water returned to its shores earlier than ever.
Lough Neagh is the UK’s largest lake and supplies more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. But vast amounts of phosphorus, nitrogen and other substances draining into the lough have left it at crisis point for some years now.
Late last week an action plan was finally agreed for the lake by the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland. The strategy promises a range of farming support measures aimed at reducing pollution pressures across the lough’s 1,876-sq mile (4,860 sq km) cross-border catchment area. Additionally, it includes real-time water quality and safety monitoring, and a pilot programme for buffer zones and tree planting around the banks, in an effort to limit contamination input. It also promises a “scientific review” of industrial sand extraction, which is scarring the lough bed.
However 17 of the plan’s 37 measures could not be taken forward prior to the summer break, with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) reportedly blocking a number of the “most controversial” actions – some of which cut across more than one Stormont department. It has been reported that the DUP’s opposition was linked to proposals on farming and environmental penalties.
The agriculture and environment minister, Andrew Muir, hailed the plan as “an important milestone in charting a new course for Lough Neagh”.
However, a number of campaigners criticised Stormont’s document for “vague language” and for dilution of certain actions following political opposition.
A proposed restriction on the use of chemical fertilisers became a commitment to consult on the issue in the final text. Alongside prioritising investment in wastewater treatment works, it was one of a number of “key recommendations” put before the executive earlier this year.
Agriculture accounts for 62% of the lough’s phosphorous inputs – which create the conditions for cyanobacteria, or ‘blue-green algae’, to thrive – while wastewater and sewage discharges make up 24%. Another 12% comes from septic tanks, of which there are more than double the UK average within the lough catchment.
Mary O’Hagan, the co-founder of the Save Our Shores grassroots initiative, said that although her organisation was “happy to see the Lough Neagh action plan has now been approved … it falls far short of what’s actually needed in many areas”.
She added: “Where are the targets for reduction of sewage going into our rivers and slurry run-off into the lough?”
O’Hagan’s group is calling for a moratorium on sand extraction and a move away from intensive farming activity that has created waste disposal headaches for decision-makers.
Dr Les Gornall, a slurry expert who worked at Lough Neagh’s last major research station (now closed), said the overwhelming priority for any clean-up effort was to drastically bring down the levels of phosphorous entering the watershed.
“The algal bloom has accelerated this year,” he said.
“In other words, it’s appeared 14 days earlier this year than it did last year. That tells me that Lough Neagh’s phosphorous inputs are higher than ever before.”
He added that between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of additional phosphorous had gone into the lough system since 2023’s algal bloom.
Scientists have modelled timescales of between 20 and 40 years for adequate phosphorous removal from the lough’s sediment, if significant reduction measures are taken right away.
“The last thing we want to see is images of standpipes in Belfast,” Gornall said.
“It’s a very serious situation – for the drinking water supply, for the people drinking that water, for the people using the lough. Tourism here is a £1bn industry and some very good businesses had to close last year.
“We have to remove 50% of the phosphorous going into the lough immediately.”
The executive’s rescue plan was agreed the same week Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, whose estate owns the lough’s bed, banks and soil, met with stakeholders to discuss the lake’s future.
Controversy over the earl’s income from the lough, which include royalty payments for sand extraction and wildfowling activity, led to a keynote speaker pulling out of a festival hosted on the grounds of his stately home in Dorset last month.
Ashley-Cooper has now suggested he may seek to transfer ownership of the inherited asset to a charity or a community development trust.
He said he “had a constructive discussion with the minister on the issues facing Lough Neagh”, adding: “I reiterated my commitment to work with his team and other stakeholders to find solutions as I firmly believe we need to work together to secure the lough’s long-term future.”
The devolved Department of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs has been contacted for comment. A Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: “NI Water’s investment need is identified by the Utility Regulator through a price control process on a six yearly cycle. During this current price control period (2021-2027) £85m of projects in the vicinity of Lough Neagh are due to progress reflecting the central importance of water and sewerage services to our society. A further £46m of projects is expected to be progressed in the next price control period (2027-2033).
“NI Water has a rigorous sampling and testing regime to ensure water is safe to drink. The drinking water treatment process is already designed with the potential for algae to be present and NI Water processes use a multibarrier approach to provide robust and effective treatment.”
