Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'll start by referring to St Asaph in my region. Many of you will know St Asaph—a very small, perfectly formed city, famed for its cathedral and its music festival. But I was quite taken aback, actually, in 2014, when St Asaph was revealed as Wales's sewage-blockage capital—you don't see that on the road sign when you drive in, clearly. [Laughter.] But, the fact was that Welsh Water had actually been called out to deal with 134 blockages in the two years up to 2014 in St Asaph: 71 blockages were reported in 2013-14, and that was up from 63 reports in 2012-13. Those incidents had led to seven incidents of flooding near homes or businesses, and we've already heard how nasty that can be. But, of course, St Asaph is only one community, and we have hundreds, if not thousands, of communities in Wales. So, you multiply that up and no wonder that companies such as Dŵr Cymru are dealing with around 2,000 blockages a month.

Dŵr Cymru, in response to the situation in St Asaph, launched a major campaign to reduce the blockages. The Let's Stop the Block campaign is one that many of us are now familiar with, I'm sure, which aims to transform customers' behaviours when it comes to putting things down the toilet, and disposing of fat, oils and greases as well, of course, which is a major contributor. So, that campaign included interactive lessons with Welsh Water's education team; there were fun community events; competitions; advertising; posters were going up, explaining to residents what they shouldn't put down the toilet; and the company even visited homes and businesses directly to talk to residents and to talk to businesses to explain to them and to share with them some useful hints and tips on how they could stop the block.

We've already heard how everyday items, such as cleaning wipes, sanitary towels and cotton buds, are being disposed of, along with fat, oil and food scrapings, and, of course, this is creating havoc. The city council in St Asaph worked diligently as well, trying to explain to people that everybody has a role to play. Now, that's a clear message that we need to share in this debate—that everyone can help and do their bit, either by reducing their use of single-use items such as wipes, or that they just think before flushing or putting anything down the toilet or down the sink, that they dispose properly of wipes, buds, nappies and, of course, that you dispose of fat, oil and grease in a safe way.

But, of course, it isn't just local residents and citizens who have a role to play. Welsh Government as well has an important role to play in this respect, and we've already heard about the need for clear labelling of non-flushable products, which would be a great help, of course, because we do need that significant culture change not only from citizens, but from manufacturers as well, so that we can reverse that growing throwaway culture that we have in our society that's causing this and so many other environmental problems as well. Legislation around flushability tests and product labelling is certainly seen as part of the solution, as we've seen with the plastic bags levy, which was mentioned earlier, and cigarette packet health warnings as well, which we know is changing people's attitudes in that particular context, and having a major positive impact when it's done well.

I would say there is a slight irony here in that UKIP are bringing this motion forward but, of course, we know that the EU Commission are proposing a single-use directive, which is currently at a draft stage. That includes the requirement to boldly and clearly label wet wipes and other products we find in our sewers as 'Do not flush'. If we end up leaving the European Union—and it's getting a bigger and bigger 'if' every day, if you ask me—then, clearly, we as Wales should look to introduce our own regulations to ensure that all such products are labelled properly. 

I'll speak very briefly to the amendments. I'm slightly disappointed with the Government's amendment that we note the work that the Government and other companies are doing. Of course, the time for noting stuff has passed. I think the time now is for decisive action. Plaid Cymru's amendments refer in the first instance to the need for awareness-raising campaigns, but campaigns of a scale that reflects the size of the problem, which isn't the case at the moment. And our second amendment urges us to proactively consider a levy to reduce the use of disposable materials. We've seen it work in other contexts. It would reduce waste, reduce blockages and generate revenue as well, to either tackle the problem directly or to pay for awareness-raising campaigns. 

I hope it doesn't transpire that the biggest blockage to sorting out our sewerage is the Welsh Government's reluctance to act.