Feargal Sharkey headlining Derry environmental event

Former lead singer with the Undertones and passionate clean water campaigner, Feargal Sharkey, will speak at a conference in the city.

Organised by People Before Profit, the event, titled 'Liquid Gold, the true cost of water privatisation' will take place in St Columb’s Hall at 7pm on October 5. It will be chaired by former Derry City and Strabane District Councillor, Maeve O’Neill.

Speaking about the urgency of the event, Maeve O’Neill said: “Lough Neagh is dying, the Mobuoy illegal dump is now leaching into the River Faughan, waterways across these islands are in status 'bad', the worst state of health for a river.

 “The Tory Government are proposing water privatisation as a solution to these ills. People here have resisted and fought water privatisation before and we may need to fight back against it again.

 “I would invite everyone to join Feargal Sharkey, former Undertones frontman, angler and prominent spokesperson for the health of our rivers and Eamonn McCann on the anniversary of the 1968 Civil Rights March to discuss 'Liquid Gold, the true cost of water privatisation.”

The Liquid Gold event is part of a ‘Think Left: a weekend of radical ideas and politics’ which is taking place in St Columb’s Hall from Thursday, October 5 to Saturday, October 7.

 Derry City and Strabane District councillor, Shaun Harkin (PBP) added that the “disaster unfolding in Lough Neagh” was a direct result of Stormont “mismanagement and profiteering”.

Cllr Harkin brought a motion on the issue, which was passed, to the full meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council yesterday (Wednesday). It read: "This Council agrees that the current management of Lough Neagh is unsustainable and has led to significant damage to this culturally, socially, environmentally and economically significant resource.

“The lough itself and the surrounding communities are now suffering the consequences of this failed management system.

“This Council agrees that the environmental disaster happening in Lough Neagh is unprecedented and calls for unprecedented action. This Council understands that a rights of nature approach may be used to inform the design of governance frameworks that are capable of producing better outcomes for the environment and communities of Lough Neagh.

 “This Council will call an urgent meeting of all Councils in the North with QUB School of Law and Friends of the Earth NI to explore the potential of legally recognised Rights of Nature for Lough Neagh."

He added: “Lough Neagh, the proximity of the toxic Mobuoy Dump to Derry's drinking water and the overall state of our rivers calls for urgent action that Derry and Strabane Council should help to lead.

“Lough Neagh's absentee private owner, the Earl of Shaftesbury, has profited from destructive practices - but all the main parties are complicit in the killing of Lough Neagh and the poisoning of our waterways.

“Stormont's agri-business ‘going for growth’ strategy has ratcheted up pollution. Raw sewage has been pumped directly into the lough. Industrial sand dredging has destroyed the lough's ecosystem. Opportunities to protect the lough were missed over and over again. 

“No one stood up to the DUP's aggressive promotion of "going for growth" because it was great for profits. Sinn Féin could have taken action a decade ago but allowed business as usual to continue. The SDLP had a more recent opportunity to block further destructive industrial dredging but opted to put profiteering first by greenlighting its continuance,” said Cllr Harkin.

Cllr Harkin called for an immediate action plan to save Lough Neagh.

He added: “This must include ending private ownership. Government departments complicit in the crisis at Lough Neagh can't be trusted to save it.

“We need to listen to local residents, the Environmental Justice Network Ireland, Friends of the Earth and others on its future management."