Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has launched a comprehensive strategy to overhaul drainage and wastewater systems across Derry and its surrounding areas, aiming to protect thousands of homes from flooding while unlocking economic growth. The Living With Water in Derry/Londonderry Plan, published on 11 February 2026, follows a public consultation that closed in April 2025 and sets out a long-term vision combining traditional engineering with nature-based solutions.
The plan arrives at a critical juncture for Northern Ireland’s water infrastructure. While the strategy promises to ease development constraints that have stalled housing projects and reduce flood risks exacerbated by climate change, it also faces significant headwinds. The Department for Infrastructure recently indefinitely deferred the equivalent Belfast plan due to funding shortfalls, raising questions about how Derry’s ambitious programme will be financed when it relies on partners securing investment from their own annual budgets.
Three Core Objectives: Protect, Enhance, Grow
The strategy centres on three interconnected goals that will guide all future drainage decisions in the city:
- Protect against flooding by managing water flow from source to sea, addressing risks from rivers, surface water, and overwhelmed sewerage networks
- Enhance the environment through effective wastewater management and creating “blue/green” spaces—natural areas that absorb and store surface water while improving water quality
- Grow the economy by providing necessary capacity in drainage systems to facilitate new housing developments and commercial projects currently blocked by infrastructure constraints
The plan acknowledges that existing wastewater treatment works and much of the sewerage network are at or nearing capacity, creating what officials describe as “significant constraints on economic growth and house building” alongside increased pollution risks.
A Mixed Approach: Concrete and Green Spaces
Unlike traditional drainage strategies reliant solely on larger pipes and concrete walls, the Derry plan emphasises “natural solutions” alongside hard engineering. These include using open green spaces, grassed swales, rain gardens, and detention ponds to slow and store surface water naturally.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Kimmins highlighted this dual approach:
“We all “live with water” so it is in our interests to identify and deliver the best solutions for our homes, businesses and communities. The Living With Water in Derry Plan provides a comprehensive and forward-looking strategy for managing drainage and wastewater across Derry City and its surrounding areas. It aims to ensure the city’s drainage infrastructure is resilient, sustainable and able to support future growth through a coordinated approach that combines essential engineered upgrades with natural solutions, such as using green spaces to help slow and store surface water.”
The Department has secured £15 million from the Public Sector Transformation Fund over four years to pilot these nature-based interventions, though this represents a fraction of the total investment required.
Local Welcome, National Context
Derry City and Strabane Mayor Ruairí McHugh said:
“This is an important step forward in addressing the infrastructure challenges that are impacting on the Derry City and Strabane District Council area. I look forward to working collaboratively with DfI and other Living With Water partners, to deliver solutions that not only meet current needs but also support future growth and sustainability for our communities. These improvements will play a crucial role in supporting the ambitions of the Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan (2017–2032), ensuring a thriving, prosperous and sustainable City and District for all.”
However, the launch comes against a troubling backdrop. In late 2024, the Department indefinitely deferred the Living With Water in Belfast Plan—originally costed at £1.9 billion—after concluding that “delivery of the Plan within the original twelve-year timescale (2021 to 2033) is no longer achievable.” NI Water subsequently mothballed major projects including Belfast WwTW Phase 1, redeploying over 150 engineers due to insufficient capital funding.
Implementation and Funding Questions
The Derry plan explicitly states that “once specific schemes are agreed upon, partner organisations will be responsible for securing funding and implementing projects through their respective annual budgets.” This funding model raises immediate concerns given that NI Water’s current budget allocation is already below levels the independent Utility Regulator determined necessary for capital investment.
Recent data indicates that approximately 19,000 development enquiries across Northern Ireland are currently unable to connect to public sewerage systems due to capacity constraints. While a fully funded programme would enable around 4,500 connections, the current funding gap leaves thousands of homes—including an estimated 2,500 planned for the Buncrana Road area in Derry—in limbo.
Critical Considerations
The strategy correctly identifies the interconnection between drainage, housing, and economic growth, and the inclusion of nature-based solutions represents a progressive shift from purely engineered approaches. Yet several significant gaps remain in the published plan:
- Funding certainty: Unlike the Belfast plan, which had specific costings (£1.9bn) before its deferral, the Derry plan lacks published total cost estimates or guaranteed funding streams, relying instead on future partner budget allocations
- Timeline ambiguity: While the plan mentions “long-term” implementation, it avoids specific delivery dates for major infrastructure upgrades, making it difficult for communities to assess when flood protection will actually arrive
- Maintenance responsibility: The plan promotes blue/green infrastructure but does not clarify who will maintain these natural features long-term—a critical consideration given that SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) require ongoing management to remain effective
Questions for Stakeholders
As the plan moves from document to delivery, several questions demand answers:
- Given that the Belfast Living With Water Plan was indefinitely deferred due to insufficient funding, what specific guarantees exist that Derry’s schemes won’t face similar mothballing when they rely on the same constrained partner budgets?
- With NI Water currently unable to accept new connections in over 100 towns and cities due to capacity issues, how will the Department prioritise which Derry developments proceed first, and will this create a two-tier system where some communities wait decades for protection?
- The plan promotes nature-based solutions, but who will bear the long-term maintenance costs for these green spaces, and what happens if local councils—already facing budget pressures—cannot sustain them?
- Given that climate change is increasing rainfall intensity faster than infrastructure can traditionally be upgraded, is the “long-term” timeline referenced in the plan sufficiently urgent to protect communities before the next catastrophic flooding event?
- How will the Department ensure that developer contributions—currently being explored as a funding mechanism—don’t simply push housing costs beyond reach for first-time buyers while failing to resolve systemic underinvestment?
What Happens Next
The plan is now available for public viewing on the Department for Infrastructure website. Implementation will depend on individual partner organisations—primarily NI Water, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and the Department for Infrastructure itself—securing funding through their respective annual budget processes.
With the consultation on Sustainable Drainage Systems in new housing developments having ran until December 2025, and the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill progressing through the Assembly, the legal framework for these changes is gradually taking shape. However, without addressing the fundamental funding gap that has paralysed the Belfast plan, Derry’s Living With Water strategy risks becoming another well-intentioned document that cannot withstand the financial storms ahead.