To ask the Minister of Health how his Department is collaborating with NI Water to monitor and improve water quality, particularly in relation to its impact on health.

The safety of drinking water is of paramount public health concern for the Department of Health (DoH).

As such the Department chairs the Drinking Water and Health Liaison Group which meets twice a year. This is a multi-agency group which considers public health issues associated with the drinking water supply.

The Group draws its membership from the main stakeholder organisations including the Department of Health, the Public Health Agency (PHA), the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Environmental Health Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Water (NI Water).

One of the key outputs of this Group is a joint guidance document on ‘Drinking Water and Health’. This guidance sets out the roles and responsibilities of the key players, describes the wider context to the provision of safe drinking water, and details the arrangements and protocols in place to monitor compliance with standards and respond to an emergency or incident situation.

DoH also works closely with DWI and has a role in the periodic, multidisciplinary review of the criteria set within the ‘Drinking Water and Health’ guidance for the notification of drinking water quality issues to PHA.

In addition, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is a member of the multi-agency Blue-Green Algae Monitoring Group led by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), alongside NI Water and DWI. This Group is responsible for the production of an ‘Inter-Agency Blue-Green Algae Monitoring Protocol’. DoH is also supportive of the Lough Neagh Report and Action Plan produced by DAERA and agreed by the Executive.

DoH welcomes the work being done by NI Water to raise awareness, for elected representatives, interested bodies and school pupils, as to the importance of the treatment processes used to treat raw water sources, such as Lough Neagh, to produce safe, clean drinking water.