by Andy McGibbon
Ecocide of our Lough
An introduction to some of the key issues by Andy McGibbon
Ecocide – the deliberate destruction of the environment by humans. The word comes from the Greek word
oikos which means “home” and the Latin word cadere which means “to kill
Some may say the word “deliberate” in the definition is incorrectly applied but I would argue the lack of actions
to fix something we’ve known about for 50 years+ mean the word is applied correctly but that aside I thought I
should start my first blog post for the Lurgan Grapevine by laying out what the issue is with our Lough for those
that maybe aren’t aware, so for those that are please forgive me but I think it’s important to try and recruit more
hearts and minds to this most serious of causes and assuming everyone already knows I think would be a
mistake. I also realise I’m literally only skimming the issues as I don’t want to bombard the dear reader with
too much wonkery.
ALGAE BLOOMS
Lough Neagh is dying, sorry let me correct that. Lough Neagh is being killed. That’s not hyperbole, in fact the
seriousness of the problem cannot be overstated. An Ecocide is being committed and what makes it all the
more unforgivable is that we know why it’s happened, we know who did it and we know how to fix it but so far
absolutely nothing is being done beyond some consultations and a meeting with the so-called owner of the
Lough, the Earl Of Shaftesbury but more about him later.
During the summer months in recent years the Lough suffers from blooms of a blue/green algae that when it
peaked this summer could be seen from space. The algae is a cyanobacteria that lives in the lough but due to
pollution it is provided with an overabundance of food in the form of phosphates which enter the Lough through
various sources but industrial farming practises, factory waste, domestic septic tanks and NI Water who dump
untold millions of gallons of raw untreated sewage into the Lough every year are the main culprits. NI Water
isn’t ran as a public service it’s ran as a company and last year alone it carried out 25’000 spills of raw,
untreated waste into the Lough or its tributaries.
The algae which all but renders the Lough unusable, you can’t swim in it as the algae is toxic, you can hardly
even walk around it as it gives off an unbearable stench then when the cooler months arrive the algae sinks to
the Lough bed where it dies off and in the process causes oxygen dead zones for all life especially fish which
in turn cause food shortages for our diving birds whose numbers have gone from 100’000 to 30’000 in a
decade and when you consider that 40% of us in the North get our drinking water from the Lough you start to
understand how serious this all is.
THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY
The cherry on the stinking cake has to be that we the people, don’t even own the Lough. It’s owned by the
Earl Of Shaftesbury.
The modern ancestor the 12th Earl Of Shaftsbury owns the lough bed and shore for which he extracts a
royalty for every tonne of sand dredged and that same sand extraction is also contributing to the decline in the
Loughs ecosystem by disturbing the very sand that many fish including our famous Eels and Pullen or
Dullaghan lay eggs in and now the Lough is at its tipping point the Earl is graciously offering to hand the Lough
back “but to who?” as he said in an interview recently.
We campaigners would be delighted to see the Lough ownership move back into the hands of the people and
turned into a national park which would afford it with all the protections in law it would need to recover but it’s
interesting the extractivists that are killing the Lough are prepared to walk away as if they’re being kind and
expect a round of applause for doing so.
LOUGH NEAGH PARTNERSHIP
Campaigners are keeping a close eye on the
Lough Neagh Partnership and if this body become stewards of the lough there must be transparency about their funding their role and their aims.
STORMONT
The Minister Of Agriculture Andrew Muir would say his “37 point plan” is a solution but the campaign groups
Save Lough Neagh, Friends Of The Earth, Surfers Against Sewage, Slí Elie and others have all dismissed the
document as merely a talking shop and the lack of urgency is frankly stunning. Save Lough Neagh recently
met with Minister Muir and asked him to call what’s going on an emergency and he wouldn’t even do that. We
were stunned, if this catastrophe isn’t an emergency I would shudder to think what would qualify in Minister
Muirs eyes.
SO WHATS THE PLAN
An independent environmental protection agency
End to the private ownership of the Lough
Recovery plan including investment in a just transition for all workers
End commercial dredging, and reduce sewage dumping and run off
Rights of nature status for Lough Neagh
As I write more in the coming months about the Lough I will break down the points to clarify exactly what we
think needs to happen.
As a part of the Save Lough Neagh campaign I talk with fishermen, swimmers, concerned citizens and
environmentalists and we are all dismayed by the lack of movement at executive level, we’re dismayed by how
companies like Moy Park are allowed to dispose of their trade effluent without punishment, the current fines
are paltry, we are all dismayed that the noble Lough Neagh fisherman is now a thing of the past leaving a
millennia of tradition in the museum.
If you want to join the campaign please go visit Save Lough Neagh on Facebook.
