Bottle of green water from Lough Neagh produced in Stormont Assembly chamber

By Rebecca Black (Press Association)

A bottle of green water from Lough Neagh was produced in the Stormont Assembly chamber as a challenge to ministers to address the environmental crisis.

During opening statements on Tuesday, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll highlighted a demonstration taking place at Stormont on Saturday where local fishermen, farmers, swimmers and trade unionists will express their concern at the state of the lough.

There have been several summers during which noxious blooms of blue-green algae have covered large parts of the lough, which is the largest freshwater lake in the UK and Ireland.

The cause has been put down to an excess of nutrients from a number of sources, including waste water, septic tanks and agriculture, exacerbated by climate change and the invasive species zebra mussels.

Stormont ministers have agreed an action plan to tackle the environmental crisis.

Mr Carroll said the campaigners “understand what the Executive does not, that clean water shouldn’t be green, or even orange, it’s a fundamental right, and we need to stop the delay, the distractions, take on the polluters and save Lough Neagh”.

Bending down, Mr Carroll then produced a bottle of murky water and told MLAs that it came out of the lake and was given to him by campaigners.

“It’s green, it stinks and it’s absolutely toxic, and it’s the source of at least 40% of our drinking water,” he said.

Speaker Edwin Poots intervened and told Mr Carroll: “You know you shouldn’t use props? You have done it now so you can put it away.”

Mr Carroll did so, and continued to say the water was “choking the life out of the lough”, adding: “It’s real life, it’s not just a gimmick, it’s not just a prop, it’s real life for people in and around the lough.”

He went on: “Swans have been trapped in the algae, young eels are suffocating, biodiversity has been wiped out summer after summer since 2023.

“It was created by years of under-investment in sewerage infrastructure and by a total failure to crack down on polluters.

“I encourage people, plead with people, to join the protest outside this building on Saturday.”

Speaking outside the chamber, Mr Carroll also accused the DUP of “whipping up sectarian tensions around Drumcree to distract from it”.

He said: “What I held up in the chamber today is Lough Neagh. It’s green, it stinks, and it’s toxic and it is the source of at least 40% of our drinking water.

“People are expected to drink this, to bathe their children in it and to swim in it.

“I asked MLAs today whether any of them would take a sip. Not one of them would, and yet they expect the public to live with it.

“Instead of fixing it, the DUP are busy trying to stir up sectarian hatred around Drumcree to distract from their own scandals.

“Why aren’t they, and their Executive partners, fixing the mess they made in our waterways instead of stirring up division?”

Blue-green algae at Battery Harbour on Lough Neagh near Cookstown in Co Tyrone