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