Pollution plan ‘must cut intensive farming for Lough Neagh to survive’

Noxious algal blooms returned to Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland, earlier than ever this year, indicating a rise in phosphorous inputs into the lake. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

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.