Northern Ireland has seven new bathing water spots where the water will be tested to ensure safety.
It follows submissions from the public, who are taking part in more water sports and wild swimming.
We reported in February how the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs was considering 20 new sites for water quality testing.
Read more: People 'getting ill' after swimming at NI beaches, say ocean activists
Bathing water testing season runs from June 1 to September 15 each year - and up to now just 26 spots were tested. The addition of seven to the list, takes this figure up to 33.
The new spots are:
- Brompton Bay, Bangor
- Cushendall
- Donaghadee Harbour
- Drain’s Bay, near Larne
- Portmuck
- Rea's Wood, Antrim, Lough Neagh
- Warrenpoint, Sandy Bottom
They will be added to the list of beaches which includes Benone Beach, Helen’s Bay, Camlough, Portrush, Newcastle and more.
DAERA says its 2022/23 Bathing Water Review also received calls from 98% of respondents for the bathing season to be extended.
They told us they will now explore the implications of such an extension in conjunction with stakeholders and councils who act as Bathing Water Operators in having the new sites identified in regulation.
The review incorporated a public consultation which saw 352 nominations for 101 proposed new bathing water sites, including inland water sites.
For the Department to proceed with the identification of a site, it must be assured that:
- bathing is not prohibited or inadvisable for safety reasons
- bathing is traditionally practised by large numbers of bathers (the Department has criteria around this)
- there is an appropriate body willing to take on the formal responsibility of Bathing Water Operator
Surfers Against Sewage told us in March that people are "getting ill" after swimming at some beaches in Northern Ireland. They called on DAERA to upgrade the testing system, which sees water go untested during or right after heavy rainfall.
We met the ocean activists at Co Down’s Ballyholme beach, which is rated Northern Ireland’s dirtiest bathing water by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
They told us then they are very disappointed at the lack of real time data and transparency when it comes to the amount of waste and untreated sewage spilling into our rivers, lakes and seas.
Despite swimmers now taking to the water all year round, samples are taken just 20 times from June 1 to September 15 with the outcome posted on notice boards at those sites, sometimes over a week later.
According to the department just 16 or 17 results were recorded for each beach in 2022 as some of the July/August 2022 samples had to be recalled because of “quality control failure” at their lab.
Surfers Against Sewage has since launched a Safer Seas and Rivers Service app, which provides real time data on some sites.
You can download it on your smart phone. You can also access the latest DAERA bathing water reports here.
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