Water Companies: Sewage Discharge Monitoring Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Duke of Wellington
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Water Companies: Sewage Discharge Monitoring
Duke of Wellington Excerpts(2 years, 7 months ago)
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The Duke of Wellington (CB)
My Lords, as the Minister has just said, the Government recently published a draft of what they describe as the storm overflows discharge reduction plan. That draft was published and consultation was invited. In that plan there is a target of reducing discharges of sewage over the next 18 years by only 40%. Does the Minister agree that the public expect a much more ambitious target than that?
Lord Benyon (Con)
The public are right to feel very strongly about this and we try to reflect that in the priority we give to this. The target will be to concentrate on bathing waters and special environmental waterways, such as chalk streams. They will be the Government’s absolute priority and by 2035, under our plans, we will have eliminated nearly all outflows into those waterways.