Fay Jones MP has expressed her deep disappointment at the reduction of Welsh Water’s Environmental Assessment Rating down to two stars. This places Welsh Water among the lowest performers across the whole of the UK, with pollution incidents rising by 2% in 2022 compared to the previous year, and 89 pollution incidents in total.
Particularly disappointing for Fay given the urgent need for transparency in the industry and need to rapidly respond to these kinds of incidents, is the decrease in the number of incidents which were self-reported by Welsh Water, as opposed to those that were reported by others.
Fay finds it very hard to reconcile this news with the urgent need to reduce the existing significant impact on our landscapes being posed by river pollution, as well as the risks being faced by those who expect quite rightly to be able to enjoy Brecon and Radnorshire’s beautiful river landscapes without fear of sewage-derived illnesses.
Fay said:
“It is extremely disappointing that Welsh Water’s Environmental Assessment Rating has been reduced to two stars. The rise in pollution incidents of a serious nature and drop in the number of self-reported incidents are particularly concerning given the importance of dealing with these events quickly and the crying need for more transparency in the sector.
Residents and tourists alike expect quite rightly to be able to enjoy Brecon and Radnorshire’s beautiful rivers without fear of sewage-derived illnesses. This development only strengthens my view that we need to take radical action to tackle this problem, in particular a cross-border and agency taskforce.”
