Flooding Problems in Belfast

13 July 2009 11:13

Very heavy showers across Northern Ireland caused localised flooding on Sunday 12 July, including in a number of streets in South and East Belfast.

The majority of flooding was caused by the surface water that resulted from the volume of rain that fell over a relatively short period of time. A limited amount of out of sewer flooding also occurred as a result of the the combined drainage and sewer system being overwhelmed. NI Water employees and contractors were on the ground on the evening of the event and a clean up operation was completed on Monday morning. NI Water has responded to all calls received from concerned customers and emergency tankers and personnel are on standby to deal with any further potential incidents in the event of heavy rain tonight or tomorrow.

A number of drainage studies are being undertaken by NI Water to review infrastructure capacity and £126million is being invested in the Belfast Sewers Project which will help alleviate out of sewer flooding in the future.