Meeting of the Parliament 26 October 2022
I thank Alex Cole-Hamilton for securing this important debate. His motion rightly stresses the importance of affording the highest possible protection to our natural environment. However, that is not currently the case for Scotland’s waters. As we have already heard, The Ferret reported that untreated human waste was discharged into Scotland’s waters more than 10,000 times last year. That suggests that current regulation of Scotland’s waters is failing: it is failing to ensure that water is clean, that it poses no risk to public health, and that it is protected as part of our natural environment.
That failure can be seen in the case of the River Almond, in which there were 500 occasions in 2019 in which sewage was released through combined sewer overflows, or CSOs. CSOs release not only sewage and floodwater, but sanitary waste that has been flushed down toilets. Campaigners have previously highlighted the risk that that poses to public health, because the River Almond is regularly used for swimming and fishing by the public. They have called for public warnings to be issued when CSOs are in operation. I hope that the minister will reflect on that point.
It is clear that steps must be taken to improve regulation of Scotland’s waters. By the admission of the Scottish Government’s own water environment policy manager, monitoring of sewage overflows in Scotland is not as comprehensive as that which is undertaken in England. A Scottish Government briefing that was acquired by The Ferret highlighted that just 10 per cent of CSOs were monitored in Scotland, compared with 80 per cent in England. An FOI request by The Ferret also revealed that more than 12,000 sewage overflows were recorded by Scottish Water in 2020. However, given that the scale of monitoring lags behind that in England, I am concerned that the figures are likely to understate the problem. I hope that, in her response, the minister will outline what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve monitoring of sewage overflows.
Monitoring of overflows must improve, but there is also a need for Scottish Water to upgrade its network to ensure that that happens. SEPA has previously asked Scottish Water to install, by the end 2024, spill monitors on all the sewer overflows that discharge to designated bathing waters. Scottish Water has confirmed that it has installed monitors at just 354 of its 3,600 overflows, with another 1,000 planned installations by the end of 2024. I expect that the minister will cite Covid for the slow progress that is being made, so I am not going to ask her to explain why so little progress has been made, but I would like to know what she is doing to get things back on track.
Improving monitoring and upgrading the network are both necessary steps, but we have to reflect on what we want regulation of Scotland’s waters to achieve. Scottish Labour is clear that Scottish Water should remain in public ownership and that the creeping privatisation of waste water services must be ended.
Regulation of Scotland’s waters must be driven by four core principles: keeping Scotland’s water in public hands, ensuring access to clean water for local communities, protecting public health and protecting Scotland’s natural environment.
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