War of words breaks out over Welsh water deals
Welsh politicians are up in arms over Thames Water’s proposal to extract up to 180 million litres of water a day from Lake Vrnwy reservoir in mid-Wales. Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price, has called for the deal to be blocked until it can be demonstrated that it won’t harm Welsh water interests.
Price argued that decisions about Wales’ water should be made in Wales, that the Welsh government should demand a fair price for Wales’ natural resources, and that the people of Wales need a guarantee that the country's’ own water resilience won’t be harmed through such deals.
Currently some 243bn litres of water are already transferred from Wales to various regions of England on a yearly basis. The Welsh government has veto powers over such transfer arrangements but is frustrated that in recent years the Conservative UK government has been rowing back on moves to give the Welsh administration full devolved powers in this area.
Plaid Cymru has a cooperation deal with the Welsh Labour government over the legislative programme in the Welsh Assembly Senedd.
Comments