Northern Ireland in 'Water Crisis'

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

A record freeze that burst water mains has left tens of thousands of residents in Northern Ireland without running water.
Transcript:
REPORTER: “We’ve tried the taps and the sink here and absolutely no running water, and I’m not sure if you can see behind me, but on the cooker there we’ve got all sorts of containers filled with water, and the added problem here -- there is a young baby in the house.” (BBC)

A record-breaking freeze and subsequent thaw burst water main pipes across Northern Ireland, leaving some 36,000 homes without running water for several days.

The government-owned Northern Ireland Water, which is the only provider in the area, has been scrambling to respond as it faces harsh criticism from all sides. They’ve brought in mobile water stations to provide relief, but doctors warn the lack of fresh, clean running water for sanitation in homes could turn the situation into a public health crisis as the flu season looms. (Video: U-TV)

Most analysts are blaming the crisis on poor water infrastructure, with one correspondent for the Guardian calling it the quote- “most obsolete in Western Europe.” He also notes, politics may have gotten in the way of improvements.

“The power-sharing executive at Stormont have considered introducing water charges to pay for massive investment to improve the infrastructure. However, all the parties in the coalition avoided water charges for this current budget, which critics claimed was because of fears of losing support in the forthcoming Assembly elections.”

Channel 4 News quotes a government official who says, the under-investment problem has been building for decades, tracing it back to the outbreak of violence starting in the 1960s called “the Troubles.”

"The under-investment that took place was over the period of direct rule...when money was diverted from areas such as water to pay for bombs and security services and so forth. But if you have 30 years of under-investment, you are not going to catch up in four or five."

The Telegraph talked with a representative from the firm says the system is at full capacity, as innumerable gallons are lost to burst pipes -- and right now they have to prioritize.

CULLEN: “We’re going to have to start alternating supply, which means that people will be off supply for a certain period of time to alllow the reservoir to fill up and keep the critical services like the hospitals and those sort of situations -- keep them as fully supplied as possible.”

“Alternating supply” has resulted in sporadic services across different areas, but critics say NIW isn’t doing a good enough job of letting residents know who has water and when. On Sky News, the residents make it clear -- they aren’t pleased.

“Years ago, they used to come around and tell everybody when the water’s getting turned off. Now you don’t.”
“They shoulda had something better than this in operation, really. So I think the water department and our MLA has a lot to answer for, because there was no emergency structures put in place.”

This isn’t the first time Northern Ireland Water has been under fire -- in 2009, the utility regulator found the firm was half as efficient at delivering services as other water providers in the UK.

Get more multisource video news analysis from Newsy