NI Water is a government-owned company established in 2007 to provide water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland. It works with organisations and agencies on projects to improve the quality of life for others.
Background
Recently ranked number four in NI’s top 100 employers, NIW’s highly skilled workforce supplies 560 million litres of clean water each day for 1.8 million people and treats 320 million litres of wastewater. By supplying clean water and safely managing wastewater, NIW safeguards people’s health, underpins economic growth and protects our environment.
What NI Water did
NIW’s strapline is ‘Delivering What Matters’ beginning with protecting health, safeguarding the environment and promoting a strong regional economy. One of its eight Customer Promises is to protect and enhance our natural environment.
As a responsible and extensive landowner, NIW has associated environmental responsibilities and has enhanced environmental habitats having a positive effect on water quality and the environment through NIW’s Sustainable Catchment Management Planning Programme NI (SCAMP NI).
NIW’s Award submission focused on a specific recent project undertaken as part of SCAMP NI. The project, Ballynacor Wild Flower Meadows, is an operational Waste Water Treatment Works and Sludge Dewatering facility located in County Armagh. The area was transformed sustainably by creating wildflower meadows planted with native species to enhance biodiversity and provide a habitat for endangered species and wildlife.
The project encapsulates NIW’s endeavours to excel as an environmental leader and incorporates a variety of approaches towards environmental sustainability.
Impacts and Outcomes
- Improved stakeholder relationships
- NIW employees, NGO stakeholders and NIEA staff involved in the project have benefited from knowledge transfer through collaborative working
- The catchment-based approach taken by SCAMP NI has resulted in product and process innovation
- Reduced energy consumption and carbon footprint during water treatment
- Reducing potential future flux of contaminants
- Increasing carbon sequestration and storage
- Avoiding unacceptable impacts of odour and enhancing biodiversity
- Positively contributing to the ever-growing environmental issue of the decline and loss of insect species such as butterflies and cross-pollinators such as bees
For more information, email alison.sweeney@niwater.com