NI Water has marked the halfway mark in its Price Control (PC) 21 programme of base maintenance work with the completion of a £16m investment in its portfolio of wastewater pumping stations (WwPS).

Commenting on this recent milestone, Tzvetelina Bogoina, NI Water Director of Infrastructure said:  “NI Water deals with over 370 million litres of wastewater every day – that’s roughly the same volume as four and a half million household baths – and we rely on 1,300 wastewater pumping stations to ensure that this wastewater gets to our treatment works so that it can be properly treated and returned safely to the environment.

“Maintaining our pumping stations and ensuring that they can work as efficiently and effectively as possible is critical to keeping our wastewater network flowing and protecting the environment.

“As we reach the halfway point in our current price control (PC21) period, NI Water is pleased to acknowledge the important roles that our colleagues and local supply chain play in successfully delivering the wastewater pumping stations base maintenance programme across the four regions – north, south, east and west – of Northern Ireland.

“Collaboration and engagement with these key stakeholders as well as our operational colleagues is central to planning the base maintenance work and ensuring that our equal regional spend is invested where improvements are most needed.

“This means that we are continually working with our appointed consultants and contractors from McAdam, RPS, BSG and GRAHAM to instil innovation and drive efficiency to get the best performance out of our existing wastewater pumping station assets.

“Carrying out carefully planned base maintenance work in both our water and wastewater networks is fundamental to NI Water meeting important environmental objectives and maintaining services for all our customers in Northern Ireland.

“We also rely on the public to play their part in helping to keep our wastewater network flowing by only flushing the 3 Ps – pee, poo and paper. Anything else should be bagged and binned to ensure all the wastewater pipes and pumps remain blockage-free.”