Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lisa Smart
Main Page: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)Department Debates - View all Lisa Smart's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality
Lisa Smart Excerpts(3 days, 10 hours ago)
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Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr. Dowd, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) for securing this important debate.
South East Cornwall is known for its beautiful environment, both on land and at sea, which attracts millions of visitors every year. Yet we face a growing water quality crisis, which threatens our environment, public health, livelihoods and local biodiversity. South East Cornwall has been ranked 14th in the UK for the number of hours of sewage dumping in 2023. In Duloe, residents and the parish council have been instrumental in raising awareness. They came together to campaign against the high levels of sewage being dumped in the Looe river, and through their efforts achieved improvements in the river’s water quality.
Good water quality in our rivers, lakes and seas is vital to rural and coastal communities such as mine. Tourism is essential to Cornwall’s economy, but it relies on clean beaches and safe waters. Poor water quality deters visitors, which really impacts the small businesses that depend on them, as well as wild swimmers, some of whom have reported illness, including members of my own wild swimming group.
Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)
The hon. Lady talks about swimmers falling ill because of sewage dumping, and the same thing has happened to groups of teenagers in my constituency. The most recent issue with sewage dumping in my patch involved a flooded field, and I am grateful to all the constituents who sent me photos of the raw sewage in that field. I am sure the hon. Lady will agree that the Water (Special Measures) Bill is a real opportunity to move forward and tackle some of these issues, but does she also agree that we need to go even further, possibly by having a sewage tax—
