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Catherine McGinty, 28 Sep
Former lead singer with the Undertones and passionate clean water
campaigner, Feargal Sharkey, will speak at a conference in the city.
[INS: :INS]
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."