Show a little more love for our water this Valentines Day

Keith Scott, Business Reporting Manager, NI Water says: “Nature provides us with a range of ecosystem services, which filter our fresh water, absorbing and retaining carbon and protecting us from flooding.

“It also provides recreation, attracting tourists and supporting our overall health and well-being. NI Water relies on fresh water as the key input to provide its services. Sustainably managed, this renewable natural capital infrastructure is the gift, which keeps on giving.”

As a society we need to place more value on water. Everyone can help by working with nature, rather than against it to support sustainable economic growth. We need to reduce pollutants entering our waterways and the millions spent on removing them in our water treatment plants. This will reduce the millions of pounds spent keeping our sewer networks clear of inappropriate items. Furthermore, we all need to be ready for more extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves, predicted to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. 

We already use around 70 percent more water today than we did 40 years ago. As a society, we need to do more to reduce our water footprint by making our homes and buildings more water efficient and by better understanding the hidden water usage in the products we buy.

This can help in further driving down leakage, our carbon footprint and increase water resilience.

Our sewer network is designed to safely dispose of the three Ps: Pee, Poo and Paper. If other items are flushed down the toilet or poured down the sewer, sewer pipes will block. We deal with around 15,000 blockages each year. Three quarters of all blockages are caused by inappropriate items being put down the sewers.

NI Water has published its long term strategy (2021-46), which aims to put more back into society, the economy and the natural environment than we take out. Our strategy commits us to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and we have joined Business for Nature, a community of leading businesses which have made commitments that will begin to reverse the loss of nature and restore the planet’s vital natural systems on which our economies, wellbeing and prosperity depend. In doing so, we can help ensure that our planet is sustainable for future generations.

We all must change the way we think about water.