NIW SCaMP Team have thus far offered three free and confidential schemes for the safe disposal of unwanted, out of date or unlicensed pesticides and other chemicals and empty containers for farmers, growers and other pesticide users in the River Derg, River Faughan and Lower River Bann catchment areas.
These schemes are designed not only to remove chemicals from our drinking water catchments which may pose a risk to raw water quality if they entered a watercourse, but also as a trust building exercise with our catchment farmers and land managers.
Farmers in the eligible areas have been encouraged to avail of these free farm-to-farm collections of unwanted chemicals and pesticides. NI Water employ a registered waste management and disposal contractor to pick up unwanted, out of date or unlicensed waste from individual farms in both areas.
Scheme participants are ensured that the process is fully confidential with no risk of come-back from regulators if bottles of unknown chemicals or now unregistered/illegal chemicals are collected.
Understanding and working with our local communities and farmers in our drinking water catchments is key to our success in sustainable catchment management. These schemes help to keep our rivers and reservoir sources free from pollutants and reinforce that NI Water are supportive of the agricultural community in NI.