6. What action is the Welsh Government taking to tackle pollution in the river Tawe? OQ57488

Llywydd, Dŵr Cymru has a programme of action and investment to tackle pollution from its treatment works on the River Tawe. Other forms of pollution, including agriculture and abandoned metal mine pollution, are addressed through Natural Resources Wales. All relevant bodies must make their contribution to addressing river pollution for those efforts to succeed.

Can I thank the First Minister for his answer? There is serious pollution in the River Tawe, especially as it travels through Swansea. We've previously had questions on pollution in the River Wye, but the Tawe also has discharge, as the First Minister mentioned, from Trebanos treatment works, and waste materials, such as parts of trees and plastic, are causing pollution. I'm told there is evidence of eutrophication on the Tawe. My constituents feel there is inadequate action by NRW—those are the ones who think there's any action at all. Will the First Minister raise the important issues around river pollution and possible action to reduce and eliminate them in discussions with Cabinet colleagues as a matter of urgency?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Mike Hedges for that, and I agree with him that river pollution is an urgent matter. I think we discussed last week in First Minister's questions the report of the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons into conditions on the River Wye. These are matters that require urgent attention, and I can assure the Member that, in addition to the things that we expect to be done through our agencies, through the regulators and through private companies, the Welsh Government itself is taking action. Our sustainable drainage schemes for new buildings mean that the risk of urban run-off going into sewers and overwhelming them is reduced, and the nature-based solutions to flooding that Ken Skates mentioned in his earlier question, the agricultural pollution regulations that were passed by the Senedd at the end of the last Senedd term and our new system of farm support will all contribute to a reduction in pollution in our rivers from those sources.

Mike Hedges mentioned the impact of abandoned plastics on our rivers and we are committed to legislation during this Senedd term on the most frequently littered single-use plastics. We're looking as a Government at how we can use, for example, the environmental permitting regulations to tighten up on the pollution that comes from that wide range of sources that Mike Hedges mentioned, Llywydd, because, as well as—and I know it's a particular issue in the River Tawe around Trebanos—the discharge of sewage into the river, there are many, many other sources of pollution that run into our rivers. The mining history around Swansea, in the Swansea valley, is absolutely part of its history that leaves a legacy in terms of river pollution today, and industrial discharges, housing development and road run-off. In order to improve the quality of river water, we have to take a rounded view of all the different ways in which that pollution occurs, and then to move forward, to find ways of addressing them all.