Water and drainage Bill takes next step in Assembly

Last week (16 September 2025), the second stage debate on the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill took place in the NI Assembly.

The Bill, tabled by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), aims to improve processes for NI Water and enable new approaches to water management. Its purpose is to strengthen resilience during extreme weather events such as drought and support more environmentally friendly ways of managing water.

The Bill, as introduced to the Assembly on 23 June 2025, includes the following provisions that could be of interest to architects:

• Regulations that may require in specified circumstances the construction or the use of a Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS).
• Regulations about the design, construction, operation, modification or removal of SuDS.
• Regulations about the entitlement of a person to have a drain or sewer within a SuDS communicate with another SuDS, a public sewer or a watercourse.
• Regulations about the assessment and management by the Department of flood risk.
• Grants by the Department by way of contribution to the costs of measures to protect domestic buildings against flooding.

The full Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill can be accessed here.

If you have any questions or comments about the Bill, please contact Curtis Large, RSUA Policy and Public Affairs Officer, at curtis@rsua.org.uk