Belfast City and District Water Commissioners


The Belfast City and District Water Commissioners was a public body in northern Ireland, established by the Belfast Water Act 1840, to improve the supply of water to the expanding city of Belfast. By 1852, the city was suffering a shortfall in supply of almost one million gallons per day.
In 1891, the Commissioners appointed local civil engineer, Luke Livingston Macassey to identify water resources to sustain Belfast. Five potential sites were surveyed in County Down, and County Antrim. Macassey ultimately decided on the Mourne Mountains in Down. Upon deciding on the site, water commissioners agreed on securing a catchment area. Private Acts of Parliament allowed the purchase of the Mournes land and related access permits and water rights. At the time the catchment was capable of providing some of water per day, but this was too much. A scheme was developed and divided into three phases.
The first stage was to divert water from the Kilkeel and Annalong river through pipes to a reservoir near Carryduff. These water pipes were capable of supplying of water per day. Work was completed in 1901. The second stage was to build a storage reservoir, the Silent Valley Reservoir, across the Kilkeel River, after new pipes laid there were able to supply another of water per day. Design work on this phase began in 1910, but procurement of the work was delayed by World War I. A contract was eventually awarded in 1923 to S. Pearson & Son and work continued until 1933.
The commissioners were responsible from 1914 for the construction of the Mourne Wall which Northern Ireland Water began to restore in 2017.
Before the Second World War, the commissioners purchased a building that is still known as the Water Office.
In the later 20th century, responsibility for providing water services was transferred to central government in Northern Ireland and, eventually, to Northern Ireland Water.