Meeting of the Parliament 26 October 2017
In four minutes, it is difficult to do justice to a topic of this magnitude. I was tempted to donate my four minutes to Bruce Crawford, if only to find out how the afternoon with Jackie Baillie on the banks of Loch Lomond was to develop. Jackie Baillie has put an end to such speculation.
As the MSP for Orkney, I need no persuading about the extent to which our identity is shaped by water. At this time of year, that shaping can be rather more robust and unremitting than we would like. Nevertheless, I strongly support the energy aspects of the Government’s motion, to which I would add, as Maree Todd did, wave and tidal energy. It is right that many members have focused on the significant potential in hydro power, which already plays a significant part in our renewables production. There is real potential to grow that. Jackie Baillie’s point about small-scale projects is one that is worth holding on to.
Through pumped storage, there is also an opportunity to address security of supply. That needs routes to market, so I associate myself with the comments that Mark Ruskell made in relation to the challenges that face the sector.
I will concentrate on international activity. As the co-convener of the cross-party group on Malawi, I was delighted to see Claudia Beamish’s amendment highlighting the climate justice fund and the work that is being done specifically in relation to Malawi. I will talk about a couple of projects, one of which was alluded to by the cabinet secretary in her opening remarks.
I pay tribute to the University of Strathclyde, which is heavily involved in a wide range of projects in Malawi. One is to widen access to safe drinking water, and has been enabled through the climate justice fund water futures programme. Professor Kalin challenged his students to come up with a device that could be retrofitted to the almost ubiquitous hand pumps in Malawi. Benjamin McIntosh-Michaelis and his colleagues rose to that challenge. The Afridev Hi-Lift now provides the ability to deliver water well beyond the pump, to premises such as clinics, in a way that was not possible before, when water had to be delivered by hand, usually by women and children, and often over very large distances. I have failed to do the project justice, but there is more information in a recent article in The Scotsman from last month, courtesy of David Hope-Jones, who provides the secretariat to the cross-party group on Malawi.
The other project is by Tearfund Scotland; it is also supported through the climate justice fund. It deals with food security and the availability of clean and safe water, through better management of water resources. One of the initiatives in that project is being delivered in Salima district, where the community is taking back control. I received earlier this week from Charlie Bevan, who works for Tearfund Scotland, an email that brought home the significant impact that the project is having on that community by delivering safe and clean water.
We are undoubtedly a hydro nation. Exploiting that is a logical step for us to take because it plays to our strengths. That is not just to the benefit of Scots; it is—as the two projects that I mentioned, and others, demonstrate—to the real and tangible benefit of citizens across the world, in some of its most impoverished nations.
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