Have you ever wondered what happens when you flush your toilet? I haven’t. The concept of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ very much applies to this situation for me. However, there are people working at NI Water (and possibly others) that spend their entire working day devoted to some part of the 16,500 km of sewers, 1,356 pumping stations, 1,027 wastewater treatment works and 66 sludge management centres that process the 360 million litres of wastewater Northern Ireland produces every day.

Obviously, I didn’t know any of that; I got these figures from NI Water’s 2023/24 annual integrated report and accounts. But it gives you an idea of the scale of the operation, one which will have to continue to grow with demand.

The responsibility for water and sewerage in Northern Ireland has been with the Executive in some form since 1974. Unlike England and Wales, which privatised these utilities in 1989 and is still debating the benefit of this decision today.

The current iteration, Northern Ireland Water Limited, was created in 2007. It operates as a company, but one whose sole shareholder is the Department of Infrastructure. This restructuring followed the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, which brought in similar legislation as in England and Wales and introduced the concept of a “water undertaker” and “sewerage undertaker” – albeit NI Water is the sole undertaker in Northern Ireland in both cases.

In these roles, NI Water has a wide remit, but I am focusing specifically on the issue of capacity in the sewerage network. The 2006 Order imposes a duty on NI Water to “provide, improve and extend” a system of public sewers. Although, under the legislation, this duty is enforced by the Department of Infrastructure (or the Utility Regulator with authority from the Department) so ultimately it is enforcing this duty on itself.

The issues with the capacity in the sewerage network have been widely reported and are already being keenly felt. Some reports state as many as 19,000 homes in development are being stalled due to capacity issues in the wastewater network, and this reflects the experience of our clients in both the residential and commercial property sector.

The current Labour UK Government has made economic growth its key mission, and developers have a significant role to play by providing housing and workplaces to facilitate this growth. The headlines so far have involved pledges to cut the ‘red tape’ of the planning process and while this is welcomed, it does not address NI Water’s self-diagnosed issue of “historical underinvestment” in the sewerage network.

So the issue is money, but where will it come from? Obviously economic growth will generate funds, but not at the rate required while the property sector is being restrained. Another option is charging for domestic water and sewerage services, and the 2006 Order already includes provisions to introduce these. However, the 2007 anti-water charges campaign put paid to that idea and such charges exist in England and Wales but issues with investment in infrastructure remain.

I suggest the likely outcome will be developers investing together with NI Water to improve the infrastructure required to facilitate new development. But any mechanism to provide for this is unlikely to be agreed in the short term.

For now, our experience is that if you have a project located in an area with capacity issues, you will need an impact assessment which demonstrates any development will be like for like or produces no detriment to the existing network. Unfortunately, on 02 January 2025 NI Water published a list of 34 areas in 23 towns where such solutions are no longer possible to achieve a connection to the sewer network. This means any assessment you have already undertaken in one of these areas is a busted flush.