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Water Management: S&T Report

My Lords, I congratulate the committee on its report and the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, on his introduction, which covered many facets of water resources. The House will not be surprised if I approach this matter from the perspective of being a Member hailing from and who lives in Wales. I am anxious to contribute because water plays a great part in my life—in the streams and rivers, which seem to flow like life itself. There are many reservoirs, too, not far from where I live. They have resulted in loss of communities, people and farmhouses—even Shelley’s house was drowned. Massive reservoirs were constructed in the Elan valley, Tryweryn—in spite of great opposition—and Lake Vyrnwy. There were victories also—the Senni valley was not dammed and drowned, although reservoirs have been built successfully, including Claerwen at the top of the Elan valley, the Usk and Llyn Briane. A lot of buffeting is going on in Wales in relation to water. It is a big political issue which causes loss of community, loss of environment, loss of the best land, loss of culture, and disruption of river ecologies and river flows. It should not be forgotten that water flows from Wales down the River Dee, the Severn and the Wye and from many reservoirs. I do not understand why, for some reason, no evidence was taken from Wales for this report. I can understand that reticence, due to devolution and other factors. However, the Government of Wales Act 2006, recently passed by this House, gives the Secretary of State over-arching powers in relation to water quality in Wales, as well as England, and he may intervene. The Welsh Assembly Government have very little power and accountability in that respect, which was a sore point when the Bill was being considered. The impact of privatisation was a major factor. I took part in the debates on the then Water Bill in 1989. We had 208 hours of debate in Committee and 532 amendments, of which only two were accepted. I attempted to put down a marker for not-for-profit companies; 25 per cent of water supply at that time came from such companies, but I was told by the Minister—then the Member for Folkestone—that that was not possible. That has been done in the past five years by Glas Cymru, the over-arching company that supplies capital for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water. It is interesting that Glas Cymru’s chairman—the noble Lord, Lord Burns—is a colleague of the noble Baroness, Lady Thatcher. He has been successful in helping to bring about much more investment as a result of Dwr Cymru surpluses, and I believe that there is a schism between the necessity of water companies to ensure that their shareholders have sufficient return and ensuring that the infrastructure receives sufficient investment. For those reasons, I was doubtful at the time of the Water Bill about the privatisation of water. However, I would not deny, as the noble Earl said, that there has been greater investment as a result of privatisation. Some factors have certainly caused me concern, such as inadequate compensatory river flows on river systems and the effect that that has on ecologies. I will not go into the details of the sale of the century of public assets in 1989; suffice it to say that they were valued at £27 billion but sold at £7.5 billion. However, that is all history now and we have to go on from here, and this report assists us greatly in ensuring that we can have a better management system. I will just point out the following facts that were given in a recent BBC ““Panorama”” programme on water. Leaks account for 5 billion litres per day; indeed, 20 per cent of water in all the companies is lost through leaks. One should look at this in the context of the four most profitable companies, whose profitability totals £1.7 billion. Perhaps I should refer to not-for-profit companies again, but the lack of investment has resulted in the continuation of a lot of leaks, which is not satisfactory. The report addresses that problem. I believe that we must not waste this water and I am pleased that the report does not propose a water grid, because until we do something about the leakage problem we will not be using our resources properly. A massive amount of water is being lost and that problem needs to be addressed immediately. I just mention in passing that Dwr Cymru has halved the amount of leaks in the past five years, since it has been a not-for-profit company. The report’s executive summary addresses strategy, regulation, metering, the social impact, and research and development. I agree with the summary word for word about the strategy. On regulation, the report proposes boards for river areas, for example. That is all right as long as the boards are accountable, but I am not sure whether the proposal would ensure that. My other concern relates to the proposal that the remits of the Energy Saving Trust and the Carbon Trust be extended to cover water efficiency. I should like to know more about how that can be achieved, as I am not sure how it could be. The statement in the summary about leakage is good and I fully endorse the conclusion on metering—it is easier for companies to impose meters in the driest parts of the county. The social factors and the affordability question are thoroughly addressed. The proposals to follow the State of Victoria in Australia on disconnections are controversial because of the social impact. There could be a mix-up between those who can afford to pay but do not and those who genuinely cannot pay. That needs to be sorted out. Research and development is very important. According to my observation of the climate in the first nine months of this year—I have checked this with the Met Office—we in south Wales have had far less rainfall than normal. As in the whole of southern Britain, that reduction is very serious. We have had only 82 per cent of our usual rainfall. The impact of climate change is crucial for the planning process, which we must take into account. The report contains pointers in the right direction but, as it says, we have a long way to go to co-ordinate planning and to produce quality water efficiently and in sufficient quantities for an increasing population. That issue, especially in the context of housing in the south-east, needs serious attention.