I was on Nolan to discuss a hosepipe ban that’s imminent. In England Severn Trent has asked people to conserve water, but there’s no ban. Water services in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic have been investing massively in their systems.
That’s not only brought leaks down within the system but allows them to keep up with ever rising demand as populations grow across these islands and demands shift up and down with the seasons.
Meanwhile NI Water (as it has been making clear since at least 2016) has been hamstrung by the Executive Office’s insistence that it must be paid for directly through the Executive via a share of the regional rate.
So you pay for it already.
Yet it has been dressed up by some parties as no water charges, presenting a false impression that water is cheap as chips. In fact, water, unlike electricity, has an abrasive character so even its existing infrastructure needs constant maintenance.
The no water charges promise featured in both the 2007 and 2011 Sinn Féin election campaigns whist the DUP only dared to ask for this element to appear on local rates bill). It was little more than just a clever sleight of hand.
As a result of the 2010 crisis (when no less than 4 NEDs were sacked from the board) its status as a semi state Government Owned Company (or GoCo) was subordinated to the minister and his Perm Sec as a Non-Departmental Public Body.
So this has been a potential disaster waiting to happen. Without an income of its own to direct and manage, the board of directors cannot seek borrowings on the open market for the capital expenditure to pay for the investment needed.
It can only plan year on year depending on what the Minister of Infrastructure (and the Perm Sec as the accounting officer) is able to game for it out of the Executive budget. Normal corporate planning usually takes place over three year cycles.
NI Water’s current strategic plan (2021-2046) makes it clear that this situation is not sustainable, warning that:
There is a growing risk that the levels of service to our customers in Northern Ireland will fall behind the water companies in the rest of the UK, against which we are benchmarked by the Utility Regulator. The current Executive policy is that the funding arrangements will remain in place until 2022.
It’s an example of how populist parties (who trade on rage and anger and happy to sell the lowest hanging fruit as a benefit even when it is against the common good) can block long term benefits in order to give what they think the voters want.
Or rather not give. The 2016 crisis in the south revolved around the fear that the Free Market minded Fine Gael government of the time set Irish Water up only to sell it off as the highest bidder as was the case in England.
Although the privately owned water companies in England have long since brought their infrastructures up to date (albeit more slowly than it could have been), in Wales they used a mutual model and in Scotland the state retained ownership.
Operational independence is crucial here. It takes the burden of maintaining and developing the water infrastructure off the public books (whilst retaining common ownership) by allowing NI Water to borrow its Capex against guaranteed income.
I didn’t hear anyone on Nolan this morning object to paying their water charges directly to NI Water once it had been explained to them clearly and succinctly what it would actually entail. Herein lies a key problem with our political class.
The security of the power sharing institutions has not only made them risk adverse it has them scared of telling the public that future needs cannot be fulfilled by continuing with the current (otherwise fixable) shortfalls in our infrastructure.
Clean water and sanitation is one of the World Health Organisation’s 12 healthy planning principles. As Green Cllr Mal O’Hara put it, who will tell the people of North Belfast they cannot have a house because the system, as is, cannot cope.
And it is a moving target, as the NI Water strategy plan notes (for all to see) Northern Ireland is moving demographically at some considerable speed and one that infrastructure needs to keep pace with:
Shifts in the urban/rural split, periodic variances in economic activity and constantly changing business needs between water intensive industrial processes and the service sector, all impact on where, when and how much investment is needed to secure future water services. The population of Northern Ireland is projected to increase by 8% between mid-2016 and mid-2041 with the over 65 age bracket increasing to 25% of the population.
If we can slip past our obsession with culture wars, the Infrastructure minister might do some good by examining now how a shift towards the GoCo model (already there, bought and paid for) might allow NIW to keep pace with NI’s rapid growth.
“Spelga Dam” by Kent Wang is licensed under CC BY-SA
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
