Objectors to the new pollution controls proposed by Alliance minister Andrew Muir are resorting to whataboutery.

Farming produces over 60 per cent of the nitrates poisoning Northern Ireland’s waterways, with a large fraction of that due to illegal spreading or dumping of slurry.

Farmers, food processors, industry groups and their political supporters, who include the DUP, UUP and Sinn Féin, all realise this is indefensible.

So they are asking ‘what about the other polluters?’

Newton Emerson: Just how do Sinn Féin, the DUP and UUP propose to save Lough Neagh?

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It is a question that should be put straight back to those three executive parties.

NI Water is causing around 20 per cent of the problem thanks to under-investment in the sewage system. This can only be fixed by putting up rates, introducing water charges or making large cuts elsewhere in Stormont’s budget.

Almost all the remaining pollution comes from domestic septic tanks, which are used by nearly a fifth of households.

This can only be addressed by further investment in sewers, or by setting requirements and deadlines for households to update their equipment, as Muir is proposing for farmers.

Septic tank technology has improved and Stormont could provide grants to help install........

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