Summary
Nichola Mallon MLA, Minister for Infrastructure has published a consultation paper on proposals to amend legislation to improve our water, flooding, and drainage legislation and is now seeking feedback from the public and interested stakeholders.
Documents
Consultation description
The consultation is now closed and the Report on the outcomes is now available:
This consultation will consider how existing legislation should be amended to help reduce pollution in our watercourses, strengthen our resilience against extreme weather events, such as drought and flooding and introduce more sustainable, environmentally friendly and green solutions to managing our water resources.
Your views are sought on:
- Powers for NI Water to implement wider water shortage measures;
- Powers for NI Water to enter onto private land to carry out works for flood risk management purposes including construction of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS);
- Provision of an enabling power for the Department to introduce arrangements to encourage developers to use sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) as the preferred drainage solution in new developments;
- Powers for NI Water to adopt certain drainage infrastructure, which is in private ownership and was constructed prior to 1st October 1973;
- Enhanced powers for NI Water to deal with drain and sewer misconnections;
- Power for NI Water to register Article 161 Agreements in the Statutory Charges Register;
- Powers for the Department to grant fund Homeowner Flood Protection measures;
- Powers to provide for easements and additional compensation arrangements for affected landowners to facilitate flood storage; and
- Technical amendments to enable future amendment of subordinate legislation - Powers for the Department to amend, update or revoke the Drainage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017 and the Water Environment (Floods Directive) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.
You can respond to this consultation via the Online Survey hosted on Citizen Space, which can be accessed using the Respond Online link below.
Alternatively a word version of the consultation is available on request via the email or postal address below.
Ways to respond
Consultation closed — responses are no longer being accepted.