Apple award for Wetland scheme

The Gold Award was presented for the Stoneyford project, showing the advantages of an Integrated Constructed Wetland solution. It was presented to the team at the Houses of Parliament, Westminster recently.

The scheme was recognised to have a positive contribution to the local community and an enhancement to the local ecosystem.

The Green Apple organisation is an international non-profit environmental group, encouraging the industry to highlight best practice around the world, sharing ideas and promoting sustainable development.

The Stoneyford site will be a flagship project for NI Water.

This environmentally-friendly solution is particularly suited to rural areas and will be built to accommodate the future wastewater needs of the village.

Sara Venning NI Water CEO said: “We at NI Water are delighted to win this major environmental award, which is a great opportunity to showcase the Stoneyford project amongst the best environmental projects in the world.

“The existing wastewater treatment works in the village was nearing the end of its useful life and needed to be replaced, so NI Water invested approximately £1m to develop this wetland, which is an important step towards the development of more environmentally - sustainable solutions throughout Northern Ireland.

“The ICW solution has been developed from natural concepts.”