NI Water has invested more than £23 million over the last five years to enhance its sewer network, significantly bolstering infrastructure resilience and reducing the risk of out-of-sewer flooding for communities throughout Northern Ireland.

The rolling programme, delivered by GEDA Construction and AG Wilson Civil Engineering, has resulted in the repair of over 30km of sewers in areas ranging from Banbridge to Bushmills and Donaghadee to Derrylin. To minimise community disruption, the majority of the works utilised trenchless techniques to reline existing pipes via manholes.

NI Water Senior Project Manager, Robert McLean, explained: "Working in partnership with AECOM and GEDA, the team works proactively to identify the highest priority areas of the network for improvements by undertaking CCTV surveys of existing sewers and analysing their structural condition, history of blockages and out-of-sewer flooding records. Where possible, rather than lay new pipes, the existing sewers are relined from connecting manholes. This effectively creates a new pipe within a pipe to strengthen the existing network and vastly reduces the amount of disruption within communities. In many instances our contractors carry out the sewer relining at night to ensure the work does not impact school or business traffic."

McLean further noted that the team liaises with stakeholders to coordinate improvements ahead of environmental or streetscape schemes to further limit disruption in urban centres. In addition to scheduled maintenance, approximately one-quarter of the £23 million total was allocated to reactive works managed by WSP and AG Wilson Civil Engineering. This allowed for rapid mobilisation to address unexpected bursts or collapses.

Over the five-year period, the programme achieved:

• 41,782m of CCTV investigations

• 22,708m of trenchless sewer rehabilitation

• 590.3m of sewer replacement

• 450m of new sewer installation

Reflecting on the milestone, McLean added: "As we mark another five years of the programme, I'd like to pay tribute to our project team from AECOM, WSP, GEDA Construction and AG Wilson Civil Engineering and their supply chains who strive to deliver these improvements in a safe, efficient and low-impact way. I look forward to continuing our efforts to strengthen even more sections of the sewer network and deliver even further environmental and economic benefits throughout NI during the remainder of our current capital works programme."

Improvements were carried out across dozens of locations, including Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Lisburn, Newry, Enniskillen, and Omagh, among many others.

NI Water is also reminding the public to protect the network by only flushing the "3Ps" (pee, poo, and paper) and disposing of fats, oils, and grease (FOG) correctly. Further advice is available at www.niwater.com/bag-it-and-bin-it/. Residents can verify the identity of callers using the PSNI 'Quickcheck' service on 101, and parents are reminded to keep children away from active construction sites.