AQW 16435/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 16/03/2021
Answered On Date: 26/03/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Infrastructure how she plans to create employment in the area of nature-based solutions.

Answer:

I recently consulted on “Living With Water in Belfast” - a £1.4 billion investment plan for drainage and wastewater management within the greater Belfast area. The plan sets out a new approach to the provision of drainage and wastewater infrastructure by promoting holistic and integrated solutions that achieve a wide range of benefits at reduced cost and disruption. Proposed measures include more conventional hard-engineered infrastructure such as bigger pipes or higher flood defences, alongside greener drainage solutions such as sustainable drainage systems and river floodplain restoration works. The inclusion of these more natural blue/green infrastructure measures has the potential to create new employment opportunities in the area of nature-based solutions. I am very keen to see this approach extended to other parts of the North and I have recently commissioned a study in Derry to examine opportunities to use blue/green spaces to naturally attenuate surface water to improve water quality in the rivers and reduce flood risk within the surrounding area.

Further employment opportunities also exist in the provision of nature-based treatment solutions for drinking water and wastewater. The Company’s Sustainable Catchment Management Planning (SCaMP) Project has been successful at demonstrating how catchments can be managed to provide both improved water quality and an enhanced natural environment. NI Water is increasingly taking a new more innovative, resilient and environmentally sustainable approach to managing catchments, by working in partnership with stakeholders and landowners in source catchments, to improve water quality before it even reaches the water treatment works. The Company aims to use fewer chemicals and less energy to treat drinking water, which is good news for their customers and the environment. In addition, the company is currently evaluating a number of different nature-based methods for sustainable wastewater treatment. Some of these technologies are already in operation, including the integrated constructed wetlands at Stoneyford and at Castle Archdale in Fermanagh.