Editor's Viewpoint: DoE must come clean on pollution
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
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The refusal by the Department of the Environment to divulge why one of Northern Ireland's premier beaches failed a European quality test is governmental arrogance of the worst kind.
The East Strand at Portrush, which attracts thousands of holidaymakers annually, lost its Blue Flag status because of a pollution incident. That is all that the minister Edwin Poots and his officials would reveal.
The department was happy to say that another beach at Portballintrae also failed the test because of an inadequate local sewerage network. So what went wrong at Portrush? We can only speculate in the absence of any further comment from the officials whose job it is to safeguard our environment. Some people are already suggesting that the pollution must have been of a major scale. That leads to a further raft of questions.
Was there a danger to holidaymakers or local people from the pollution? What were the pollutants? Has the pollution been contained or cleaned up? These are important questions for people living near the beach or those who use it regularly. They deserve to be told the truth and the whole truth. It is difficult to believe the department's assertion that giving out the facts could prejudice the outcome of its investigation into the incident.
An important reason why people welcomed the restoration of devolved government to Northern Ireland was that departments dealing with issues that affect the day-to-day life of people would be headed by locally elected and locally accountable politicians. They have obtained their positions through the votes of local people and, in return, are answerable to them, unlike their Direct Rule predecessors. That is something Mr Poots should bear in mind. Neither he nor his officials should try to hide behind a smokescreen when asked a simple and pertinent series of questions.
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