: Thank you to the
Member for Blaenau Gwent for introducing this legislative
proposal. A number of constituents have been in touch with me, as
is the case for many other Members I know, expressing concerns
about sewage being spilt into our waters from storm
overflows—many of them supporting the call by Surfers Against
Sewage to stop the release of sewage into the seas by
2030. These people include swimmers, surfers and also people who
are encouraged to use the seas for their health and well-being.
And the concern is that the current practices not only have clear
environmental implications, but they also represent a direct risk
to the health of people using our waters. There was one surfer
who truly wanted to take advantage of a good day of waves, as we
have around Anglesey very often, but told me, 'I'm not sure how
ill I will be if I do go surfing.'
MS: I'd like to take the
opportunity, like the Member for Ynys Môn, to pay tribute to
Surfers Against
Sewage for their work in highlighting and combating the
discharge of sewage into the sea at beaches across Wales. Many
Members may be aware of the targeted e-mails to elected Members
when a combined sewer overflow—a CSO—has discharged sewage into a
water at a specific location. Surfers Against
Sewage have estimated that, between 1 October 2020 and
30 September 2021, 5,517 sewage discharge notifications were
issued by water companies warning of sewage pollution impacting
designated bathing waters in England and Wales. Of these, 3,328
discharge notifications were issued during the bathing season of
15 May to 30 September. So, based on the widely accepted advice
not to swim in sewage-polluted waters for 48 hours following a
discharge, this means 16 per cent of swimmable days during the
bathing season have been lost due to sewage pollution events...
(Minister for Climate
Change):...But, just to be clear, Dŵr Cymru obviously has the
vast majority of the infrastructure in Wales, and they've
installed event duration monitoring on 99 per cent of their storm
overflow assets and the remainder will have them installed by the
end of this year, by next year. All relevant data is available on
the website, so you can see exactly what's happened with those.
They are required to provide a summary of spill data from their
monitors to NRW on an annual basis, and they provide real-time
storm overflow alerts all year around at key bathing sites. So,
already, in conjunction with Surfers Against
Sewage, Dŵr Cymru allows registered users, through the
Surfers Against
Sewage safer seas campaign, to get real-time information
on when a storm overflow begins to operate, how long it operates
for and when it stops. So, anyone who wants to go bathing in the
rivers can pick that information up, and it is really useful to
have that if you're into wild water swimming, and I should
declare an interest and say I definitely am into that. So, I have
an acute understanding of the need to understand what exactly is
happening...
For context, CLICK HERE
