Following Storm Chandra, homes across the Antrim area were inundated, with water from the Sixmilewater; water reached just below windowsills, trapping residents inside their homes. Part of Antrim’s Conservation Area, the residents of Riverside and Massereene Street – where in the 19th-century mill owners-built the cheapest housing for the industrial working class on the lowest-lying land by the river for factory access —experience recurring and preventable crises. The system that once exploited their labour now exploits their geographic vulnerability.
Riverside and Massereene Street Residents are a community who live in “terror,” of further property damage, suffer mental trauma, and face uninsurable homes. The human cost and burdens of flooding is severe and disproportionately borne by the working-class and vulnerable residents, while developers and the state avoid ultimate accountability. Low-income residents in Antrim’s transitional flood zones often face a ‘breaking point’ because they lack the capital to independently recover from repeated flood events.
Residents specifically blame increased flooding on extensive construction of private housing developments, increasing impermeable surfaces along the river and no governance over stormwater management. One such example, a promised attenuation tank for the 10-year development of 400 new homes by private developer Antrim Construction Company at Belmont Hall Antrim was not built, and enforcement was lacking. Land is treated as a commodity for maximum profit, leading to planning decisions that increase flood risk and degrade the river’s natural function. In essence the community, not the developer, pays the price for environmental damage.
Climate change impacts
Residents also blame climate change. The increasing frequency and intensity of storms causing the Sixmilewater to overflow is a direct consequence of the capitalist mode of production. The global capitalist economy’s dependence on fossil fuels for perpetual growth has driven climate change. In Northern Ireland this manifests as more frequent and severe extreme weather events, such as the record-breaking August 2008 flood, a supposed 1-in- 100-year flood event. Marxists would argue that in an era of rapid climate change and unregulated development, capitalist logic renders historical data useless, making these 100-year events happen much more frequently.
Residents noted the lack of a coordinated official response and pointed out that state agencies were “conspicuous by their absence”. During a visit to Riverside by Liz Kimmins, Minister for Infrastructure, on 28 January, she cited budgetary constraints and competing priorities for failing to implement a coordinated emergency flood response, never mind permanent flood defences. The reactive, piecemeal, and underfunded response from government agencies is not an accident but a feature. This negligence ensures that wealth remains in private hands whilst public infrastructure is underfunded.
A new feasibility study was announced in early 2025 but will take 18 months. Endless “feasibility studies,” slow bureaucratic processes, and a refusal to hold developers fully accountable (like those who failed to build promised attenuation tanks) reflect a capitalist state’s priority of managing rather than solving crises that conflict with property interests.
Build public infrastructure for human need not private profit
A revolutionary strategy involves building working-class power and organisation. The formation of the Riverside and Massereene Street (RAMS) Residents Association is a classic step in working-class organisation. Their actions include collecting data, confronting developers and MLAs, issuing legal pleas on “duty of care”, are defensive battles within the system.
Reforms like better drainage, and potential engineered defences like walls or dredging are only temporary fixes. A Marxist solution emphasises that protecting against disasters requires removing the profit motive from infrastructure planning. This involves massive, democratic public investment in flood management, placing private and human need above private profit.