Residents protest outside Water Service following flooding

Residents from the lower Ormeau area of Belfast have held a protest outside the Water Service building on Tuesday morning.

The residents were protesting at the continuous flooding of homes in the area following torrential rainfall on Friday which caused further flooding.

A number of houses were damaged when drains overflowed and water and sewage seeped into a number of homes.

A Water Service spokesman said its staff did the best they could under the conditions and that they hoped to have a new drainage and pumping system in place later this year.

However, Belfast Lord Mayor Alex Maskey, who attended the picket, described the response from the Water Service on Friday as "disgraceful".

Meanwhile, Alliance's South Belfast representative Geraldine Rice attacked the Department of Regional Development in what she described as "its failure" to tackle flooding on the lower Ormeau Road.

Councillor Rice said: "The DRD have run out of excuses. It is time for proper action to deal with flooding in the Lower Ormeau, as it has been a regular occurrence in there for far too long."

(MB)