The Wye and Usk Rivers

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 21 June 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:12, 21 June 2022

I agree with the Member about the need for very significant investment, but the investment comes from water companies. They are responsible, not the Welsh Government. There is money that the Welsh Government invests, and we have £40 million already being spent in this field over the next three years, but the responsibility does not lie with the Welsh Government. The responsibility lies with the water companies, and we are very lucky in Wales to have a not-for-profit water company so that millions and millions of pounds are not siphoned off from bill payers into the profits. This is the irony, Llywydd, isn't it? We have a publicly owned water industry in the United Kingdom; it's just that it's owned by the French Government and the German Government, not by our own Government, where those profits would be reinvested, as they are in Wales, and we're fortunate to be in that position. 

I hope that the next quinquennial review will see the sort of step change in investment in dealing with the issues. I do agree with the Member, and I agree with Peter Fox, that these are serious matters and we deserve to have a serious debate about it in Wales. And that does mean that we have to be prepared to face some challenging conversations. I will chair a summit at the Royal Welsh Show on phosphate pollution in our rivers. Yesterday, the Minister published research findings that have been carried out by independent researchers funded by Dŵr Cymru into the River Usk. It looked at daily levels of phosphorus in the river. Twenty-one per cent of those daily loads are the result of sewage treatment works. Those are elderly works without the modern levels of sophistication, and they need to be upgraded so that that can be reduced. Twelve per cent comes from what the researchers describe as other categories: septic tanks, urban run-off. One per cent comes from combined sewage outflow areas, and 67 per cent comes as a result of agricultural use of the land along the riverbanks.

That's why it is necessary to have a mature, non-blaming conversation with our farmer colleagues. I'm going to be absolutely clear about that. I'm not giving you these figures in any sense of wanting to point the finger at anybody, but it is just to illustrate the fact that if we are to have the impact on our rivers that I know the Member will want to see, and that's shared around the Chamber, you have to have a mature conversation in which all the interests that have a part to play are prepared to be part of that conversation, to recognise the actions that they can take. Cumulatively, that will lead to making the difference.