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Water Management: S&T Report

My Lords, from these Benches I warmly thank the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, and members of the committee for giving us the opportunity to debate these important issues of water, which we have debated less in your Lordships’ House in the last few years than the issue of energy, yet water is absolutely vital. Noble Lords have spoken mostly today of the demand-end of water—what comes out of the pipe and consumers use—but of course that is just the end of the process. It is important that we look at water management as applying to the whole natural hydrological process. Rain falls on ground that is compacted, tarmacked and polluted. It runs off too fast, causing flooding and taking the pollution with it, so the groundwater becomes polluted and there is a lack of refill for the aquifers, on which my noble friend Lady Sharp spoke. However, there is a different way. If we have the soil in the right condition, do not cover the ground with tarmac—something the Government started to address through the sustainable urban drainage programme—and have absorbent, vegetation-rich soil, the rain can run slowly into streams or groundwater, any pollution begins to be naturally filtered out and we have a very different system. It was with that natural hydrological cycle in mind that I read the report. Having a close relationship with that cycle comprises the perfect solution that we are looking for. The noble Lord, Lord Crisp, said that there must not be disagreement over these water-management issues. Those were wise words. I very much enjoyed his speech and I look forward to hearing from him again. It was striking that those who gave evidence saw one mechanism as the tool for solving many of the problems. I refer to the water industry, the water companies, environmental NGOs, government agencies and the European Commission. I make no apology for quoting the comments of different bodies, as that will prove the extent of their agreement on the solution to the problem. Pamela Taylor of Water UK, representing the industry, said: "““We have been disappointed that too many organisations who ought to be playing a major part in the Water Framework Directive are too far behind the pace in England and Wales. In Scotland we are seeing better strides…there is…a feeling that the Water Framework Directive brings problems. It does not; the problems are already there. What the Water Framework Directive does…is provide the tools for addressing those problems…the slower we are to implement the Water Framework Directive, the more we will be dependent on end of pipe solutions, the more that will cost society, the more it will cost our customers, and the less successful we will be because they are not sustainable options””." That is the industry’s view. Your Lordships might think that it would be very different from that of others. Dr Alastair Burn, head of water and wetlands at English Nature, states that, "““the Water Framework Directive provides the pre-eminent mechanism to tackle things at the catchment-wide level…it offers the opportunity for a much more holistic approach, if implemented properly””." The industry is frustrated because the measure is being implemented too slowly. English Nature is frustrated because it is not being implemented properly. Devon Wildlife Trust wrote to me—this is not from the evidence but is its comment on the report, which it very much appreciated—stating that the water framework directive should be the benchmark for all discussions about water, not merely a bit player. I could mention other quotes. The Water Act 2003 gave the Government an opportunity to implement the water framework directive properly, but they did not take that opportunity. They are implementing it in a piecemeal way and very slowly. I thoroughly agree with the forceful comments of the noble Lord, Lord Lewis of Newnham, on the matter although, unfortunately, he did not have time to go into it thoroughly. It is much more expensive to fix the problems later than to solve them through the water framework directive. The measure concentrates on natural rather than heavy engineering solutions. The noble Lord, Lord Howie, referred to water grids and desalination plants. I refer to flood defences. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, referred to heavy engineering solutions. Those served us well in the 19th century when sewerage systems and flood defences that we would recognise today were introduced. Modern thinking on these matters embraces the filtration systems that he so eloquently discussed, a far softer approach of managed retreat for coastal systems and, as I said, soil and wet woodland systems that absorb flood water. It is important for the Minister to ensure that the water framework directive is implemented in this country in such a way that it is very much part of the process that I am discussing. I am sure that other Members who have spoken in this debate will have received a brief from the National Farmers’ Union on these issues. I was perturbed by its comment that it felt very much excluded from UK TAG, the technical advisory group that is advising the Government on how the process should be implemented. The NFU feels it will be excluded until the group has reached its conclusions, when of course it will be consulted, along with the rest of us, local authorities and whoever. That is the wrong way round. We should not have a closed-door process. It is very much a matter of involving as many stakeholders and interested parties as possible as early as possible. When the Minister replies, I am sure that he will say that the Environment Agency is creating the liaison panels for the river basins. Of course it is, but those are made up of only 10 people per region of England and among them are all the usual suspects—the Environment Agency and so on—and the process has not been widened out one bit. I must declare an interest. My husband is chair of his local flood defence committee and a member of one of the liaison panels; I hope he does not take my last comment as a criticism, and he was not aware that I was going to make it. However, we need to widen out the process and ensure that it is as inclusive as possible. The frustration that is being built up aboutthe fact that such a useful mechanism and tool is being squandered by the Government is reflected by the fact that a wide coalition of groups, including conservation groups, the RSPB, angling and consumer organisations, will shortly launch a water manifesto. It recognises that the water framework directive represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address long-term threats to our freshwater resources and environment, and that more focus should be paid on what society wants as the outcome for the WFD. The groups say that they want solutions that produce the best possible outcome for society, the economy and the environment as a whole, and not just the aquatic environment. Every time the Government seem to address the water framework directive, they imply that it is just about the aquatic environment. A gentle criticism of the Select Committee’s report is that not until page 90 does it properly address the water framework directive, although I note that the chairman, in his questioning of witnesses, states that the WFD is critical in setting the agenda for the entire discussion about water, so I know that he is aware of that issue. It is imperative that the Government get a grip on this, not because it is a European directive, nor because we have to do what it says—although we will pay dearly if we do not bring our water environment up to a good standard financially—but because it makes common sense in every way to work with the directive as the means to solve all the problems. We would want to do that even if the directive was not there. I look forward to a more positive reply than we had in the Government’s response to this issue, which, in common with other noble Lords, I found extremely disappointing.