Clause 4 - Restrictions on Impounding
Water Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Ms Sue Doughty (Guildford, Liberal Democrat)
I did not have the opportunity earlier, Mr. O'Brien, to welcome you to the Chair; I have pleasure in doing so now.
We tabled the amendment to find out why discrete waters are not covered by the Bill. The Committee has expressed strong support for the environmental
aspects of the Bill, and we would expect it to include discrete waters. Section 221 of the Water Resources Act 1991 defines discrete waters as
''inland waters so far as they comprise—
(a) a lake, pond or reservoir which does not discharge to any other inland waters; or
(b) one of a group of two or more lakes, ponds or reservoirs (whether near to or distant from each other) and of watercourses or mains connecting them, where none of the inland waters in the group discharges to any inland waters outside the group''.
A number of other discrete waters come to mind, including navigation waters, navigation reservoirs and other substantial bodies of water with their own environmental systems, which are used for various purposes. It would be wrong to exclude them.
Ponds, lakes and reservoirs have important ecosystems, and other parts of the Bill look to protect those ecosystems. On the face of it, however, a substantial amount of water seems to be excluded from the Bill's provisions. Several discrete bodies of water are sites of special scientific interest, and I would like to know how they are to be protected. It might be decided to remove water from a discrete body of water—the idea is floated every now and then that we should have a national water grid or a similar mechanism—but I want to know how we would support the water levels in those reservoirs. Those levels will rise and fall, but removing too much water can cause environmental damage. It seems that the Bill does not provide the protection to those habitats that is afforded to the other areas of water that it covers.
I would like to know what the Government are going to do to protect those ecosystems, and I wonder why discrete waters are excluded. I would welcome the Minister's comments on how discrete waters are treated in the water framework directive and whether the directive might offer more protection. Certainly, the Bill offers them no protection. We would like the amendment to be accepted because it could form the basis of an efficient way to tackle the environmental problem of supporting such systems. What will the Government do to protect those habitats?