{"id":692522,"date":"2026-07-15T06:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692522\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T06:31:10","slug":"fish-kills-its-a-disgrace-how-our-rivers-have-been-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692522\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish kills: &#8216;It&#8217;s a disgrace how our rivers have been left&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">For almost 20 years, NI Water has been protected from the severest pollution fines because of a special arrangement that acknowledges its outdated and underfunded infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In March, Environment Minister Andrew Muir said reforms could see NI Water face tougher punishments for issues in the waterways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last month Muir introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daera-ni.gov.uk\/news\/minister-muir-introduces-fisheries-aquaculture-and-water-environment-bill-assembly\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a new bill to increase fines and penalties for pollution offences, external<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This will have to go through Stormont&#8217;s legislative process before becoming law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile the latest fish kill figures have led to fresh calls for stronger deterrents to stop water pollution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">James Orr from Friends of the Earth said 50,000 dead fish was &#8220;not a trivial amount&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not just the fish,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;What are the kingfishers going to eat? What are the otters going to eat, what about the insects which are the building blocks of our rivers?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They&#8217;re all impacted and it&#8217;s a national disgrace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He suggested the low prosecution rate &#8220;encourages polluting by not having successful deterrents&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The government needs to stand up to these polluters to protect our water,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For almost 20 years, NI Water has been protected from the severest pollution fines because of a special&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}