Catchment management to be central to government water review, minister shares

Water minister Emma Hardy has signalled that catchment-based management will be central to the full water review it is planning to announce this autumn.

Speaking at a Labour Party conference fringe meeting hosted by The Rivers Trust, Hardy shared: “We are going to be looking at the whole of the catchment because you can’t solve the problem at the point of which the drain operates and starts to pollute. At that point you’ve lost. We need to look further upstream and how can we slow it [the flow of water] in some places and potentially speed it up in other places.”

Chief executive of The Rivers Trust, Mark Lloyd, said: “There is a story of hope for our rivers – we can deliver more with what we already have. Rivers Trusts and farmers are primed to deliver real change on the ground, and by blending public, water industry, and private finance, we can make this happen.

“Government is playing its part by driving system change through reviews and legislation to enable catchment and nature-based solutions for integrated water management. Working collaboratively and innovatively, we can deliver more for nature, communities and the economy.”

Elsewhere at the meeting, Hardy acknowledged that water investment will be essential to underpin growth. She said: “Labour’s mission is economic growth, and we cannot have economic growth if we don’t have enough water. We can’t build 1.5m homes if we can’t guarantee that they’re going to have access to fresh water, and they are going to have a sewage system that will take that waste away.”

She added: “Without water we have no economy. You can’t do anything as a country. We can’t grow. We can’t fulfil Labour’s missions without clean water.”