Waterwise welcomes the Welsh Government’s Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Water Governance in Wales: Delivering Sustainable Water Management for Communities, Business, the Environment, Nature, and Long-term Resilience.
We have long called for stronger strategic direction which delivers. This 25 year strategy, and plan for streamlined regulation and planning, aims to secure sustainable resilient water supplies for Wales’ people and natural environment today and into the future.
Waterwise CEO Nicci Russell said:
“We are really excited about the Welsh Government’s plans! For a long time, Wales has had a world-leading approach to holistic management of the natural environment, and Wellbeing Goals which cover everything people in Wales care about, and now the policy, legislative and regulatory framework is being rewritten, and more power over its water returned to Wales. We are looking forward to helping design the new framework with water efficiency at its heart. As the Welsh Government says in its Green Paper, it has clear plans to co-develop reforms with stakeholders – to ensure a resilient, integrated, and sustainable water system for current and future Welsh generations. We will be shouting loudly for water efficiency, all the way!”
Strategic direction
Waterwise supports the Welsh Government’s recognition that a strategic approach is needed to tackle the full range of pressures on the water environment, to improve its resilience, and reverse its long-term decline. Water efficiency will need to be mainstreamed, to meet the Welsh Government’s goals – in legislation, policy, regulation and regulatory guidance
- National Water Strategy: We endorse plans to refresh and strengthen a National Water Strategy for Wales with a long-term vision, national priorities with interim targets, and taking a strong cross-sectoral approach to the responsible and sustainable management of natural water resources.
- Collaboration: We recognise the importance of supporting guidance and delivery in collaboration with regulators, water companies, and stakeholders, ensuring transparency and effective decision-making, and future plans to integrate wider public and environmental policy goals.
- Strengthening Law and Legal Duties: We back the Welsh Government’s plans to take water sector reform as an opportunity to strengthen the law placing stronger environmental duties on Welsh Ministers, including ecosystem resilience, and ensuring a clearer legal basis for aligning water governance with broader environmental and public health outcomes.
- Water Efficiency and Reuse: We strongly welcome the Welsh Government’s recognition that improving water efficiency and accelerating the adoption of water reuse and recycling infrastructure must be moved up the agenda. We support its plans to carefully consider which water demand and efficiency measures will secure water supplies into the future to ensure the wellbeing of the Welsh people and its natural environment.
Regulatory reform
Waterwise supports the ambition for a modern regulatory and enforcement system.
- New Economic and Planning Function: We welcome plans to create a new economic and planning regulator/function that delivers the national strategy, and hope this is designed to realise the benefits of demand reduction, water efficiency and reuse systems to secure sustainable water supplies for people and the environment.
- Modern regulation: We support the plans to move to a modern system of regulation that is flexible and equipped to respond to the urgent challenges facing the water system e.g. climate change.
Planning
Waterwise is encouraged by the Paper’s commitment to developing a planning function which designs a resilient, integrated, and sustainable water system, where planning reflects the needs of communities, the environment, and future generations.
- Streamlining and Collaboration: We support the commitment to streamlining Wales’ economic and planning function, and ensuring it is collaborative and possesses the necessary powers, resources, and capabilities for cross-sector engagement and delivery.
- Priorities: We note the plans to consider how to consolidate and align the range of statutory and regulatory plans and planning cycles, and we are encouraged by the commitment to ensuring economic priorities do not take precedence over environmental protection, resilience, and public value.
- Practical Solutions: We agree with plans to focus on practical solutions, taking a holistic approach which prioritises nature-based solutions rather than relying solely on hard engineering, and making improvements where possible without waiting for legislative changes.
Modernising the legislative framework
We welcome the Welsh Government’s aims to strengthen Wales’ legislative framework, aligning it with the ethos of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act and long-term collaborative approaches to sustainability.
- Environmental Protection: We support plans to ensure no regression in environmental protections, binding new duties on Welsh Ministers, embedding environmental principles, new binding targets, ensuring water management supports nature recovery and environmental improvement.
- Monitoring: We welcome the commitment to reviewing and enhancing water monitoring programmes to accurately reflect the state of the environment and track progress, not just on water quality, but also on water quantity, ensuring water management leaves sufficient water in the environment.
Company structures and infrastructure
We support aims for water companies to have expertise at a senior level to ensure they can manage natural water resources for environmental and social outcomes, because nothing happens without water. We also endorse the recognition that resilient infrastructure and a renewed focus on asset health are critical to the long-term sustainability of the water industry, agreeing that asset health and resilience standards must meet the challenges of climate change, population growth, growing environmental need, and public expectations.
Waterwise looks forward to working with Welsh stakeholders to respond to the consultation, and working alongside the Welsh Government to deliver the urgent action required to ensure sustainable future Welsh water supplies.
