David Chadwick MP calls for local environmental campaigners to sit on Dŵr Cymru board

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David Chadwick is calling for the health of local rivers to be more carefully monitored. Video from parliamentlive.tv

Transcript

00:00and the environment.

00:02David Chadwick.

00:05Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

00:07As the MP for Bracken, Radnor and Comptower,

00:09I'm in the honourable position

00:11of representing a constituency

00:13containing three mighty rivers.

00:15The River Susque, Tower

00:17and the world-famous River Wye

00:19all rise in the hills and mountains

00:21of Mid Wales and pass through

00:23this giant constituency.

00:25All the water in the Wye

00:27ought to be considered

00:29a national treasure,

00:31stretching as it does across some of the most picturesque

00:33landscapes, providing habitats

00:35for an array of wildlife

00:37and supporting multiple communities

00:39through tourism and recreation.

00:41Yet sadly,

00:43the River Wye is dying

00:45at an astonishing speed.

00:47And that's why strengthening

00:49the regulation of our water companies

00:51is understandably a major priority

00:53for my constituents.

00:55I know that my constituents

00:57are not as devastated by the reality of sewage dumping

00:59as many of them have told me so.

01:01Wild swimmers, anglers and kayakers

01:03are just three groups affected

01:05by sewage dumping and the knock-on

01:07impact that has on our local economy.

01:09And yet in Wales,

01:11the environmental regulator,

01:13Natural Resources Wales, is chronically

01:15underfunded and has faced

01:17decades of budget and staffing cuts

01:19by the Welsh Labour government.

01:21These cuts have left it unable

01:23to fulfil its role, meaning

01:25that the current legislation

01:27is not being properly enforced.

01:29NRW requested a minimum

01:31of 50 extra staff members

01:33just to do their job properly

01:35and 250 additional

01:37staff members to do it well.

01:39Well,

01:41Madam Deputy Speaker,

01:43the expansion of regulatory powers

01:45must be matched with the necessary

01:47resources to strengthen the regulator's

01:49hand and enable

01:51enforcement. And despite the River Wye

01:53being probably the most famous

01:55case of river pollution in the UK,

01:57it might surprise some to learn that the other

01:59two rivers in my constituency,

02:01the Usk and the Tower,

02:03are in even worse health, with all

02:05three sadly placing within the top 30

02:07most sewage-filled rivers

02:09in the UK. So while I

02:11welcome the legislation strengthening

02:13the monitoring of emergency overflows,

02:15it's important to recognise that currently

02:17citizen scientists,

02:19like Friends of the Upper Wye and

02:21Save the River Usk, have been doing most of the

02:23legwork when it comes to telling us

02:25what exactly is in our rivers

02:27and where particular areas of concern are.

02:29And that's why we, the Liberal Democrats,

02:31are calling for community groups

02:33to have the right to representation

02:35on water company boards so that

02:37we bring that local expertise on board.

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