Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm delighted to see that I've drawn such a crowd for my debate on water, so it's brilliant. I'd just like to confirm that I've agreed to give Mike Hedges and Sam Kurtz a minute of my time. I wanted to raise this debate today on water issues in Wales for a variety of reasons, the overarching one being that I believe that, as a Senedd, we don't pay enough attention to the challenges faced by the water industry in this country. Namely, in maintaining the affordability of bills and the intricate part that it plays in land and waterway management.

As we all know in this Chamber, household and business energy bills are not the only utility bills affected by the unprecedented rise in wholesale energy costs. The water industry not only faces higher energy costs itself, but it's very often the first bill that goes unpaid as consumers struggle to meet costs. The water industry therefore faces a disproportionate challenge, in that its costs are going up and its revenue is exposed to volatility and decline, which ultimately then pushes bills up for other customers. This is important, not only because of the impact to household and business finances, but because of the long-term implications that it has for the water sector. Due to climate change and population growth, among other factors, we cannot ignore the needs of the water sector in terms of appropriate legislation and the requirement to drive behavioural change among our population. In order to better use our natural resources, we need to think more carefully about sustainable water usage and the effects that sewage overflows are having on our river water quality and natural environment.

In Wales, out of the 1.37 million households that we have, a staggering 175,000 face water poverty, meaning that over 5 per cent of their household income, after housing costs, is spent on their water bills. Of those 175,000 households, only 35 per cent receive financial support to pay their water bills, leaving an estimated 114,000 households struggling to pay their water bills. Joint research from the Consumer Council for Water and Ofwat, published earlier this year, found that one third of customers struggle to pay bills fairly frequently, and this is a huge problem that is being compounded by the unprecedented rise in energy costs and the rise in interest rates and inflation. Affordability schemes at present are different for each water company in Wales, and this does present problems, as there is an almost postcode lottery as to whether or not you are eligible for support and by how much.