Meeting of the Parliament 21 September 2023
Scotland’s rivers define our iconic landscapes. From mountain tributaries to estuaries flowing into the oceans, they provide vital water and rich habitats and help us to adapt to global threats, including climate change and water scarcity. As Mark Angelo, the founder of world rivers day put it,
“Rivers are the arteries of our planet; they are lifelines in the truest sense.”
We have many innovative initiatives under way in Scotland to nurture, improve and protect our rivers. I am proud to outline a few today.
In working with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to implement river basin management plans, we are investing £4 million this year to continue the work of the water environment fund. The fund restores access to rivers for migratory fish, including salmon, by removing barriers to fish passage. It also restores urban rivers, thereby providing multiple benefits for biodiversity, climate change adaptation, leisure and flood management.
Since 2021, the Scottish Government’s nature restoration fund has awarded in excess of £2.3 million for projects to restore and revive river habitats, and to improve their resilience to climate change. I was delighted to visit the River Almond to see such work in action and to celebrate the Seafield weir removal project. I have also visited restoration projects along the Dee and the Don, with the re-meandering—what a wonderful word that is—of rivers to allow for spawning habitats; the embedding of felled trees in rivers to allow for spawning habitats for invertebrates and to create shade; and planting along the sides of rivers to provide shade and animal habitats. It is glorious to see those rivers coming back to life.
The Scottish Government is working closely with partners to develop integrated catchment management techniques to restore rivers and to improve natural flood management.
We take the issue of declining populations of wild Atlantic salmon very seriously, and our wild salmon strategy is working with multiple partners to ensure the protection and recovery of that iconic species. I take a different view from my colleague Alexander Burnett about the primacy of seal predation on Atlantic salmon; there are human impacts on the species as well as climate impacts, so it is important that we look at all the issues, in the round, to restore that iconic species to Scotland’s rivers.
A priority theme is improvement of the condition of rivers and giving salmon free access to cold and clean water—they are so sensitive to climate change. Our actions to achieve that are wide ranging and are supporting salmon recovery and benefiting wider river biodiversity. All the actions that are good for salmon are good for other species as well, including the critically endangered freshwater pearl mussel.
We are also committed to ensuring that our efforts are informed by the latest scientific evidence. Earlier this month, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands announced funding of more than £500,000 to allow Scotland’s network of fisheries boards and river trusts to monitor salmon this year.
Members have expressed much concern, specifically about sewage spills and overflows—especially on to our beaches and into our rivers—which cause the distressing sanitary waste that we find. This morning, I participated in a beach clean, in which we picked up such waste. It is absolutely distressing—for everyone—that such incidences occur. Over the past decade, Scottish Water has reduced environmental pollution incidents by 60 per cent—from 800 each year to fewer than 300—despite increasingly challenging weather patterns. That is an on-going project. In the period from 2010 to 2021, Scottish Water invested around £880 million on targeted improvements to environmental quality.
Scottish Water is also investing an extra £0.5 billion over the period 2021 to 2027, as part of its “Improving Urban Waters—Route Map”. Members including Mercedes Villalba have raised this issue; I will respond to her question. Through comprehensive asset studies, Scottish Water is identifying the right locations for increased monitoring to maximise the benefit to our environment and to ensure value for money. I am pleased to confirm that it expects to install more than 1,000 additional monitors by August 2024, which is ahead of the timetable that is set out in the route map.
I am excited by today’s debate because it has provided such an enthusiastic discussion of biodiversity. Members have mentioned otters, water voles, beavers, herons, salmon, trout, dragonflies and, of course, the pearl mussel. I will add a species. This morning, while on the beach clean, I heard the announcement that oysters have been returned to the Forth, in which they had been extinct for 100 years. Although we found piles of oyster shells on the beach this morning, they were more than 100 years old. Today, the species returns to the Forth.
So much effort is being put into restoring our glorious rivers to what they should be. I was excited to hear Evelyn Tweed’s stories about beavers. She noted how important they are in preventing flooding and in storing of water during dry seasons. That will become more and more crucial as climate change progresses. Our ability to manage water is tied up with how we manage the natural environment around our rivers.
That includes managing river temperatures—another issue that colleagues have raised. So many species are sensitive to the temperature of the water in our rivers. By shading the rivers, through planting along the banks and ensuring that there are obstructions in the water that can provide shade and cool spots for important species such as salmon to spawn, we are restoring the natural balance.
We, in Scotland, are on a journey to progress and improve our biodiversity and to improve our clean water—to make sure that there is clean water everywhere and that the standard of our rivers is very high. We want nature to thrive throughout Scotland, and we want businesses and communities to enjoy, and benefit from, our rivers.
I thank colleagues for the debate and I congratulate Jackie Dunbar.