‘If I don’t swim I deteriorate. So what do I do?’

Ricky Holmes can often be seen swimming in Lough Neagh, in summer or winter.

“At this time of year, I would swim maybe 500 metres, but in the summertime, it could be anything from two kilometres to four kilometres. It’s my exercise. I used to go swimming in the pool but I wouldn’t go now because of the smell of chlorine,” said Ricky.

He uses cold water as a therapy for mental health. However, not having access to his exercises or swimming meet-ups posed a significant challenge.

Members of his group called the Ballyronan Bluetits could not swim in Lough Neagh for months due to the proliferation of blue-green algae.

“The algae was quite visible all through the summer from June to the end of May. It became really bad from June time, you just could not go into the water," said Ricky.

“There is still a wee bit at the minute. You would need to ingest quite a bit of it for it to do any harm but you can get away with it now.

“But earlier in the year, you just couldn't have gone into it. Even the smell was quite bad like a real steel, musty smell. It was the worst I have ever seen it.”

The cause of the appearance of the blue-green algae is diverse. Sewage released into the lough, fertilisers used in the fields nearby, a non-native invasive species of aquatic wildlife, and the rise of the water temperature due to the high temperature of June are responsible for these issues.

Although commonly referred to as algae, it is, in fact, cyanobacteria—a harmful bacteria to humans and highly mortal to animals.

“I have seen dead swans, fish, ducks and on Facebook, I have seen posts of dead deers and dogs.”

At some point, Ricky got sick but he is uncertain whether it resulted from the algae or Covid.

“I can’t say yes or no. I was sick but it could have been a stomach bug. Who knows? It could have been other things, it could have been COVID-19 but you don’t know.”

Ricky was able to go back into the lough a few weeks back. However, the algae is not the only problem for lough swimmers like Ricky.

With sewage released into Northern Irish Rivers and Lough, it is another worry for swimmers'
health.

“When you go to a doctor about depression, one of the first things he will tell you to do is to spend time in nature and greenery in order to help you. So you know swimming for me is an exercise, friendships, it ticks so many boxes,” continued Ricky.

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword because I started open-water swimming for mental health reasons. I suffered severe depression and anxiety.

“So what do you do? Do you avoid the sewage and deal with the implications of your mental health, or do you go swimming? You’re damned if you do, you're damned if you don’t.

“I suppose it’s better for me going into the Lough even with the sewage and other things.”

A Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs spokesperson recently said: “While there are no quick fixes to the situation that occurred this summer on Lough Neagh, we are working closely with scientific and other experts on proposals that can deliver improvement for the future.”

DAERA also released information last week about the quality of bathing water across the North.

They declared that 96% of Northern Irish Bathing waters met the required water quality standards in 2023.

In County Derry, Castlerock, Benone, Downhill and Portstewart are identified as having excellent bathing quality.

Lough Neagh supplies 40.7% of the Northern Irish population with drinking water.

Ricky and his family made the hard choice to switch to plastic bottles. He stopped drinking tap water due to the blue-green algae presence in the lough.

On September 29, NI Water declared that the water from Lough Neagh ‘is safe to drink and use as normal’.

However, Ricky still decided to use plastic bottles, which also have long-term implications on health.

“I’m almost 50 years of age and I’ll probably not be around long enough to see the side effects of the water but I have two kids and two dogs. I just decided to buy water bottles in our house until the water clears up because you don’t know what are the implications for the long term.”