Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard MP has welcomed the completion of a major cross-border scheme to improve water quality in Carlingford Lough as “the perfect platform” to restore and regenerate the lough’s delicate ecosystem. 

The South Down MP was invited to the new Warrenpoint Wastewater Treatment Plant by NIWater to see the new facility and learn more about the positive impact of the EU funded ‘Shared Waters Enhancement & Loughs Legacy’ (SWELL) project. 

Mr Hazzard said: 

“SWELL has been a major success, and again demonstrates the importance of cross-border cooperation in protecting and enhancing our local environment and improving water quality for those living in the Carlingford Lough area. 

“As an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; a National Heritage Area; Special Area of Conservation; and a designated ‘Shellfish Water’ area, Carlingford Lough is one of Ireland’s most beautiful, but environmentally vulnerable watercourses. 

“So the completion of this €35million EU funded project is the perfect platform to restore and regenerate the lough’s delicate ecosystem; which will soon receive a further boost with the completion of a new Wastewater Treatment Plant in Omeath to end the discharge of over 800 wheelie bins of untreated wastewater into Carlingford Lough per day.

Mr Hazzard added:

“Significantly the success of SWELL is much broader than merely the new physical infrastructure on the shores of the lough; but we now have the tools to help target investment in the future as SWELL has provided an evidence based soil-to-sea ecosystem modelling toolbox, allowing environmental managers and regulators on both sides of Carlingford Lough to make the right decisions in restoring and regenerating Carlingford Lough’s water quality.”