6. Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Water Quality

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 15 November 2022.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:51, 15 November 2022

Thank you, Mike. As I said before, we've been working with Ofwat to make sure that, in the next price review for water companies, both the ability and the need to invest in stopping sewage outflows into rivers, particularly the combined sewage outflows, is very necessary and that a programme of investment can be put forward. It's very important to us that the price mechanism is put in place to allow, in particular, Dŵr Cymru to invest, because Dŵr Cymru is a not-for-profit. So, we've been really pushing with Ofwat that the model of price that they put in place must benefit a not-for-profit company, so that it can invest more. Jane Hutt and myself had a very interesting conversation with them and with the water charities about the affordability of that, as well as the ability to invest. So, we certainly are on that, Mike.

Just in terms of the phosphates and the special areas of conservation, we have a whole series of capital programmes in place that we hope to roll out across Wales. We've got the north-west opportunity catchment project, which is targeting riverbank erosion caused by livestock access, poor riparian habitat condition and the impact of diffuse pollution on sensitive wetland sites. That's in Clwyd, Conwy and Anglesey. There's the freshwater pearl mussel project, which is about river resilience and developing benefits to water quality—and I can sneakily put in that I'm the native oyster champion there, Llywydd, so I'm very keen on that project as well. And there's the LIFE Dee River project, alongside the four rivers project, which is working with landowners to reduce the inputs of nutrients and sediments to the Dee SAC through providing for on-farm interventions. We have a range of projects of that sort, Mike, where we will be getting the learning back from them and then looking to roll them out right across the SAC rivers in Wales. Diolch.