NI Water has published its Annual Integrated Report for 2021/22.

Launching the Report, Ronan Larkin, Director of Finance and Regulation, outlined the need for sustained investment:

“NI Water can only continue to play this vital role if we are able to invest today to meet not only the increased demand for our services, but also the combined challenge of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis.

“In the last year NI Water has led the way in developing approaches to tackle these pressures. Now we need to work with our stakeholders to make this a reality through innovation, collaboration and the right sense of urgency.”

“We must start to properly fund NI Water’s vital infrastructure”

He went on to emphasise that the company shared the Government’s vision of having the infrastructure that enables everyone to lead a healthy, productive and fulfilling life; supports sustainable economic development; and protects our environment. However, he warned that this ambition could only be realised if secure longer term funding certainty could be secured that comes with multi-year funding in line with that determined by the independent Utility Regulator, supported by a mechanism to deal with financial shocks.

Adding that NI Water is focussed on building a carbon neutral and climate resilient business, he continued:

“Climate change is of particular importance to the water sector given its impact on the quality and quantity of water sources, the carbon intensity of its supply chain, and the exposure of its assets to extreme weather events. At NI Water, we’re committed to delivering a net zero, climate resilient future for all our customers. We are determined to harness the huge and largely unseen potential for NI Water to address climate change.

“The Power of Water Report launched in 2021/22 shows how our assets can play a strategically important role in helping society to generate and store renewable energy and deploying battery storage at scale. As one of Northern Ireland’s largest land owners we can also help remove and store carbon and support strong biodiverse ecosystems, which are the basis for a resilient water supply chain.”

He also highlighted that NI Water has an important role to play in boosting biodiversity:

“NI Water is a nature based business at its heart. Our assets are entwined with the natural water cycle and our land holdings hold a rich array of plants and animals. We are partnering with our stakeholders to help restore our natural environment by rewetting our degraded peatbogs, planting 1 million trees and using nature based infrastructure solutions. Not only can this help boost biodiversity, but it can also deliver a range of other benefits such as improved raw water quality, flood alleviation, carbon removal and storage and cost efficiencies.”

Click here to download the report in full