Northern Ireland Water Framework Directive Statistics Report 2021 released

The 2021 Northern Ireland Water Framework Directive Statistics Report has been published today by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

This statistical report contains updated water body status (classification) for Northern Ireland river, lake, transitional & coastal and groundwater bodies predominantly based on monitoring data covering the period 2015 to 2020 inclusive.

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For the first time the presence of ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (uPBT) substances have been assessed as part of chemical status. The uPBT substances are monitored by analysing concentrations in both the water column and in biota. However, biota samples are only collected at selected surface water monitoring stations and not across the entire network. Due to their bioaccumulative and persistent nature, uPBT substances have been detected at all monitored stations and resulted in failures of all of those stations. It is recognised that uPBT substances would cause more failures if additional stations were monitored. For this reason, the uPBT failures have been extrapolated to all surface water bodies across Northern Ireland,  meaning that none of our rivers, lakes, transitional & coastal water bodies will meet overall good status (when ecological and chemical status are combined).

The key points are:

Overall River Water Body Status

• In 2015, 147 (33 %) of the 450 river water bodies were classified as good or high overall status. In 2018, 141 (31 %) of river water bodies were classified as good or high overall status. In 2021, when the presence of uPBT substances were included as part of the chemical assessment, no river water bodies achieved good or high overall status.

Overall Lake Status

• In 2015 and 2018, 5 (24 %) of the 21 lake water bodies were classified as good overall status. In 2021, when the presence of uPBT substances were included as part of the chemical assessment, no lakes achieved good overall status.

Overall Transitional & Coastal Water Body Status

• In 2015, 8 (32 %) of the 25 transitional & coastal water bodies achieved good overall status and 1 (4 %) achieved high overall status. In 2018, 10 (40 %) water bodies achieved good overall status. In 2021, when the presence of uPBT substances were included as part of the chemical assessment, no water bodies achieved good overall status.

Overall Groundwater Body Status

• In 2015, 49 (65 %) of the 75 groundwater bodies achieved good overall status. In 2021, 51 (68 %) achieved good overall status.

In addition to Overall Surface Water Status, the report presents ecological and chemical status separately to give more detailed information on the water body. Comparisons between 2015, 2018 and 2021 are presented for chemical status by excluding uPBT substances and cypermethrin.

Notes to editors: 

1. The Water Framework Directive is implemented through a River Basin Management Plan (RBMP). The first cycle RBMPs ran from 2009 to 2015. The second cycle Plans were published in 2015 and run until 2021. The third cycle draft River Basin Management Plan 2021 - 2027 was published on 9 April 2021 for a six month public consultation which closed on 10 October 2021. This report is to compliment the publication of the final RBMP due to be published by 9 April 2022.
2. Water bodies are assessed against a number of elements as required by the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017. For surface waters, ecological status is assessed against five classes: bad; poor; moderate; good; and high. Chemical status surface water bodies are assessed against two classes: good and failing to achieve good. Groundwater is assigned to either good or poor status for chemical quality and water quantity.
3. As stated previously, the presence of ubiquitous, persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (uPBT) substances have been assessed as part of chemical status for the first time. Due to their bioaccumulative and persistent nature, uPBT substances have been detected at all monitored stations and resulted in failures of all of those stations. uPBT failures have been extrapolated to all surface water bodies across Northern Ireland, meaning that none of our rivers, lakes, transitional & coastal water bodies will meet overall good status (when ecological and chemical status are combined).
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