HUNDREDS of protestors marched through Belfast on Saturday to demand urgent action to halt the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh.

The lough, which is the largest in Ireland, has been suffering an unprecedented ecological crisis in recent months with huge blue-green algae blooms choking sections of the lough.

CALL: Protestors called for the Lough to be returned to the people, it is currently owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury
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CALL: Protestors called for the Lough to be returned to the people, it is currently owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury

Campaigners presented five demands including:

1. Public acquisition of the lough.

2. Independent Environmental Protection Agency.

3. Investment in a research and recovery plan.

4. End commercial sand-dredging, sewage dumping, and reduce agricultural run-off.

5. Recognise the rights of nature.

Addressing the demonstration which converged on City Hall, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said: “Years of government mistreatment and the prioritisation of private profits have driven Lough Neagh to the brink of collapse.

“Coupled with a global climate crisis, Lough Neagh is being turned into a boiling cesspit. 

“Despite warnings from environmental campaigners, former Stormont Ministers allowed big polluters to turn Lough Neagh into a sewer. Agricultural run-off and pollution is poisoning our drinking water and destroying local wildlife."

CLEAN UP: A protestor calls for an end to pollution at the Lough
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CLEAN UP: A protestor calls for an end to pollution at the Lough

Calling for public ownership of the lough, Gerry Carroll continued: “The Earl of Shaftesbury shouldn’t get a single penny for it. He has already profited from its destruction and the state should move to take it from him."

Also speaking at the march Green Party councillor Brian Smyth said: "If we do nothing about Lough Neagh, it will die. It will turn into a giant septic tank in the middle of Northern Ireland.

"We will be denying our children and grandchildren a liveable, breathable future. This is bigger than the Windsor Framework, this is bigger than the centuries old constitutional question. There will be no Union of the People or a New Ireland on a dead island."