5. Debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee Report: 'Report on storm overflows in Wales'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 15 June 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:13, 15 June 2022

I completely acknowledge that, and I'll mention it in brief—I'm going to talk very fast now—in the rest of my contribution.

I just wanted to acknowledge the work of Joyce Watson on the surface water drainage issue. She's left the Chamber now, but she's been working on that very hard as long as I've known her. I want to assure her that we're absolutely on board with that.

We've already taken steps to tackle discharges from overflows, including making sustainable drainage systems mandatory in all new building developments, which helps relieve the pressure on the network by diverting and slowing down the speed at which surface water enters the sewage system and ensures the last-resort nature of storm overflows.

NRW are currently finalising the next iteration of the river basin management plans, which will set out a comprehensive overview of our water bodies, pressures and a suite of measures required to deliver water quality improvements.

I cannot emphasise enough that it's only by working together across all players that we can tackle the multiple risks that our water bodies face. We're working with the regulators, water companies, Afonydd Cymru and the Consumer Council for Water, through the better river quality taskforce, to develop action plans. The action plans will support our understanding and identify changes required to ensure water companies effectively manage and operate their system of sewers to meet current and future challenges.

I've already committed to providing an update to the committee in the autumn, following the publication of the road map by the taskforce in July of this year. Those action plans will cover five areas of change and improvement, which are: reducing visual impact; improving effluent quality and river quality; improving the environmental regulation of overflows; longer term planning for capacity in the waterwork network; enhancing public understanding engagement on water quality, and the quality action plan will also focus on monitoring arrangements. We're establishing an investigative monitoring programme between NRW and both water companies to determine long-term requirements for monitoring the overflows throughout Wales and the need to monitor for a wider range of pollutants, including microplastics and pharmaceuticals, and public health parameters will also be assessed.

We're also investigating and promoting the use of monitoring and—