Water is indeed one of our greatest natural assets and an integral part of our culture, our heritage and our national identity, shaping our natural environment and our landscapes. Our rainwater falls into over 120 catchments that are subject to a variety of land use types and management practices, all of which impact on water quality. Much of Wales is mountainous with comparatively low populations, adding to the challenges in terms of the infrastructure needed to supply customers in some areas. Due to our topography, as rainfall progresses speedily towards the coast during heavy rainfall events, it picks up pollutants as it drains into our rivers and can also overwhelm our mainly Victorian sewerage systems, creating flood risks. So, the challenges we face are likely to become increasingly difficult, for example with the UK climate projections predicting drier summers and wetter winters in Wales.

I think it's really useful to remember, but it's slightly ironic in the context of today's debate, the exceptionally dry summer we experienced last year, with even less rainfall in Wales than in 1976—for those of us old enough in the Chamber to remember 1976. This brought its own challenges for the water companies in terms of resilience.

So, with all of this to take into consideration, we are committed to a more integrated approach to the management of our water, in line with our natural resources management policy and the Environment (Wales) Act 2016. And in 2015 we published our water strategy for Wales, setting out our long-term policy direction.

So, when I saw the title of Janet Finch-Saunders's short debate today, I wasn't quite sure where we were going, but, obviously, Janet referred to hydropower, which is a very important part of our energy mix, and I too have been fortunate to visit several small hydropower schemes. Janet seemed to question Welsh Government's commitment to them, but just today, I announced the continuation of 100 per cent business rate support for community hydropower projects for 2019-20. And the scheme has already supported almost 50 hydropower projects in the year, including seven community-owned projects. So, the continuation of the grant scheme will enable eligible projects to retain the maximum possible benefit for their local area, enabling them to reinvest into the local community.

I think Janet mentioned that Mark Isherwood had visited Ynni Ogwen, as I did back in November. It was very interesting to see that the founder director of that project said:

'The Welsh Government’s support for community hydro schemes towards the cost of business rates has been a great help to us, saving us £14,000 over our first two years and ensuring the hard work of our volunteers in setting up the scheme has borne fruit. I am really pleased this support will continue after 1st April. This will give us great confidence as we consider whether we can proceed with our second scheme next year.'

And Janet referred to the feed-in tariff ending, and I really do think you're pushing at an open door with me and Welsh Government—it's the door in the UK Government where you have your Tory Ministers who are ending the feed-in tariffs—. And I have to say, I also visited a hydropower scheme not far out of Machynlleth, on a farm, and the farmer said to me that with all the expertise that he's gained from putting the scheme on his farm, he would very much like to do another one in the next valley, along with another farmer. But because of the reduction in the feed-in tariff, it simply wasn't worth it. So, I think it's not just Welsh Government that needs to bring forward initiatives to support hydropower—it's also the UK Conservative Government. But I do think well-designed hydropower schemes are a great example of how we can really harness our natural resources that are available to us for the benefit of local communities, while making sure that we protect the river environment.

I just wanted to say, at the other end of the scale, we've obviously got the groundbreaking sustainable drainage systems regulations that just came into force a couple of weeks ago on 7 January. Again, it will see innovative ways of reducing surface water run-off and enhancing wildlife and biodiversity in urban environments. And it also contributes to the protection of 163,000 properties in Wales, which are currently at risk from surface water flooding. The SuDS approach will also provide additional benefits from utilising rainwater, such as rainwater harvesting systems, which do have the potential to reduce the demand for treated water in homes and businesses.

Janet also mentioned farmers, and we provide grant funding to farmers for water harvesting and filtering equipment, and our sustainable production grant focuses on nutrients management and storage in order to reduce pollution incidents in our watercourses and the impacts on the associated flora and fauna.

Another initiative—back in December, I published a revised version of 'Planning Policy Wales', 'Planning Policy Wales: Edition 10'. It emphasises the need to embrace integrated approaches for the planning and management of water resources in both urban and rural areas and highlights good practice for utilising our water resources in Wales.

As a Government, we also work very closely with the water companies in Wales, and our main water company, Dŵr Cymru, is proposing to spend a record £74 million on research and innovation from 2020 to 2024. I think what that investment will do is see further collaboration between Welsh Water and our land managers to protect water quality and improve the land's ability to retain water, whilst also improving our ecosystem resilience and biodiversity within one of our most treasured areas of outstanding natural beauty.

So, we continue to plan for longer term water resilience. We need to take steps to support our environment, communities and businesses, and the water companies are currently preparing their water resource management plans for the next 25-year period from 2020. These plans will show how the demand for water is going to be managed and met up to 2045, and the plans are required to take into account climate change projections, population growth and new developments.

Water policy is a key topic here in Wales, and we will need collectively to exhibit strong leadership to continue to secure the maximum benefits for the people of Wales. Diolch.