Water Quality

NIEA policy is to maintain or improve the quality of surface waters and waters in underground strata (groundwater) in Northern Ireland as required by EC Directives, national policy and international agreements. It also requires the general management of rivers, lakes, estuarine and coastal waters to be at least "Good" under the adopted classification schemes with no downward movement between classes.

For groundwater quality only two classes (good / poor) are defined with the objective being to achieve good chemical status for all designated groundwaters. Surface waters and groundwaters in NI are monitored by the Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment and Marine Monitoring and Assessment Sections of NIEA's Water Management Unit, to determine their quality and to assess their compliance with the above requirements.

The Environment and Heritage Service Monitoring Strategy report on its proposals for monitoring the aquatic environment and meeting the monitoring requirements of the EC Water Framework Directive can be accessed as a pdf file at:

Aquatic Monitoring Strategy 2006-2007 and Water Framework Directive Monitoring Plans. ( PDF 1.3 MB)