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I see from the WUF site that they sold a ticket to someone from Newcastle Emlyn to fish the middle Irfon on the last days of the season 24th/ Says it all really.
The below letter from a decent MP may give a better understanding of the way things are and how they think. No quick fix that's for sure.
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"Thank you for contacting
me about the Lords Amendments to the Environment Bill which was voted on last
week in Parliament.
This contained a number
of measures to deal with the problem of sewage entering the river system in
England. I fully understand the concerns everyone has about sewage flowing into
rivers. I am an open water swimmer myself, as are my children, so I have a
personal interest in this matter.
The historical
background is that the current sewage and drainage system was built in
Victorian times. Waste water from rain is channelled into the system alongside
waste water and sewage from households and businesses.
This is usually
channelled into purification plants to be cleaned before flowing back into the
river system. However, when there is heavy rainfall, too much water enters the
system and water pressure builds. If the water pressure reaches a certain
level, then this mixture of rainwater and sewage would, if not dealt with, flow
back up the pipes and flood into people’s houses. Obviously, this cannot be
allowed to happen so before that stage is reached the water companies ease the
pressure by releasing untreated waste water directly into the river system.
This means that sewage enters the river system. It is diluted because this only
happens when there is heavy rainfall, however it is still unacceptable.
This has always been the
case but in recent years the sewage discharges into the river system have
increased. This is because of the increase in population size and in extreme
weather this has put extra pressure on the sewage system.
The UK Government have
decided to address this issue in England (it has no say over what happens in
Wales). The Bill means that Government will be drawing up a plan to reduce
sewage discharges and the Environment Agency and water companies based in
England will report regularly on discharges. Water companies in England will
have to monitor storm overflows and publish notification of the overflow
occurring and ceasing within 1 hour of operation. Water companies will also be
required to monitor the water quality upstream and downstream of the discharge.
The government is to publish a report by 1 September 2022 setting out the
actions required to achieve elimination of sewage discharge and the cost and
benefits of doing so.
Completely resolving the
problem of sewage discharges would require rebuilding the sewage system and I
have heard Ministers suggesting this could cost between £150 and £600 billion
pounds and take many years. For comparison, the Government spends around
£160billion on the NHS in England every year. Obviously once we have more data
and costs then further measures can be taken.
If MPs had voted last
week to immediately ban any discharge of sewage into the river system, then any
heavy rainfall would have led to sewage flooding back up the pipes into
people’s homes. It would have been grossly irresponsible to do this.
In Wales, the sewage
management and discharge is carried out by Welsh Water who answer to the Welsh
Labour Government. Water quality monitoring is carried out by Natural Resources
Wales (NRW) who are also answerable only to the Welsh Labour Government. The UK
Government have no say on these matters in Wales. At present it is not clear
whether the Welsh Labour Government intend to follow the measures put in place
for England. They are certainly about to end sewage discharges for exactly the
same reasons as the ones which I have set out.
It is disappointing that
a number of Labour activists in Wales have taken to social media to suggest
that last week Conservative MPs “voted to pump raw sewage into the rivers.” It
would be just as accurate (or inaccurate) for me to put out messages stating
that “Labour MPs have just voted to pump raw sewage into your house.”
The issue is complicated
and is being addressed in England by the Conservative Government.
Political activists with
a dislike of the Conservative party will continue to try and suggest that
Conservatives “vote to put sewage into rivers”. Those who genuinely want
cleaner rivers, and I am certainly one, will try to develop a fuller
understanding of the arguments and call for practical actions from both the
Welsh Labour and UK Conservative Government.
It would be helpful if
those who genuinely care about river quality now demand similar action from the
Welsh Labour Government.
Thank you again for
taking the time to contact me on this very important issue.
Regards,
David TC Davies MP
Member for Monmouth
16 Maryport Street
Usk
Monmouthshire
NP15 1AB
