The fact that this week's torrential rain could result in road damage in parts of the city illustrates all too clearly the need for a major overhaul of the water system here.
But before those who advocate initiatives such as water rates start nodding their heads in agreement, it should be remembered that making people pay additional money for water is not the road to go down.
No one is going to argue that the water sys
tem here is in a poor state of repair. But that is due to the fact that for almost 30 years British direct rule administrations allowed it to fall into that state of disrepair.
It wasn’t as if money was not being paid towards the upkeep of a water system - it was just that the money was being diverted elsewhere. It is immoral now to ask people to pay for the mistakes and neglect that governments made over those years.
Having said that, it appears the practice is still going on. A report recently talked of only 70% of road tax going towards the upkeep of roads with the other 30% being diverted to other projects. This is so wrong. If people are paying road tax it should go towards the roads, just as the components of the rates that were meant to go towards the water system should have gone there.
Governments should no longer be permitted to rob Peter to pay Paul and then expect the general public to pick up the tab when things start to go wrong.
Our devolved administration should take steps immediately to ensure that money raised for one thing should be used for that and nothing else.
It is about time we started to see some direct benefits from this administration at Stormont. We have had all the crises and all the blustering - it is now time to start delivering.
The full article contains 317 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.
