The appearance of an unidentified thick sludgy scum at Toome Canal in Co Antrim is an alarming reminder of the need for urgent action to protect Lough Neagh.
Water from the lough, which was blighted by toxic blue-green algae blooms last summer, drains into the canal. The cause of the white and brown scum is as yet unknown, which in itself is a source of concern.
If devolution is to be worthwhile, the executive needs to demonstrate it can make real improvements to the quality of our lives; that has to include looking after our environment and protecting our precious natural resources.
Stormont’s record on this has been, to put it mildly, poor. The policies of previous executives, especially around agriculture, environment and infrastructure, have contributed to the lough’s deterioration.
Nonetheless, unburdened by humility and a sense of responsibility, every political party last summer pledged to prioritise Lough Neagh’s protection if powersharing was revived; now that Stormont is back, we will be able to judge the sincerity of those promises.
It is encouraging that one of the new assembly’s earliest debates was about the lough. Sinn Féin’s Philip McGuigan described the situation as an “ecological catastrophe” and called for a “rescue package and plan”.
Agriculture, environment and rural affairs minister Andrew Muir said he had visited Lough Neagh during his first few days of office and that he would be working to “take forward evidence-based solutions to tackle blue-green algae and secure long-term water quality improvements”.
Mr Muir also said that within weeks he would be bringing forward “Northern Ireland’s first environment improvement plan”.
We look forward to studying the detail of the plan and assessing the scale of its ambition when it is published.
Mr Muir and others continue to talk about bringing the lough into public ownership and out of the hands of the Earl of Shaftesbury. That may well be part of the eventual solution, though ministers would be better concentrating first on the issues linked to the health of the lough - agriculture, sand dredging, sewage and septic tanks, for example - which Stormont already has control over but has manifestly failed to get a grip of.
But it is also a mistake to subcontract care for our environment to politicians and civil servants. We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world; we can all play a role in keeping it that way.
