Cymraeg
Two Welsh Water employees collecting river water samples.
Stepping up to the challenge
The environment

Protecting and enhancing this precious inheritance is important, as is supporting livelihoods and social wellbeing within communities.

The environment in Wales is under threat as never before.

Wales is famous for its dramatic landscapes, beautiful countryside, iconic rivers and coastlines, and thriving farming communities.

We welcome millions of visitors every year to enjoy the natural environment and experience its culture, supporting local businesses across Wales.

Protecting and enhancing this precious inheritance is important, as is supporting livelihoods and social wellbeing within communities.

However, the environment in Wales is under threat as never before.

The Climate Emergency declared by the Welsh Government in 2019 underlined the importance of everyone playing their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In June 2021 the Senedd declared a Nature Emergency and called for statutory targets to be set to halt and reverse the decline in biodiversity. We are committed to playing our part in the government’s Nature Recovery Action Plan to increase the health and resilience of the ecosystems on which we all depend.

Blue icon of waves depicting water.
The health of our rivers and coastal waters is a huge public concern and is a clear priority for us and for the Welsh Government.
This can only be addressed by all those who contribute to the issue working together, and we recognise that we have a leading role to play. This can only be addressed by all those who contribute to the issue working together, and we recognise that we have a leading role to play.
Blue icon of waves depicting water.
River Water Quality

Rivers are vital to our health, economy and wellbeing as well as the ecology and biodiversity of the communities we serve.

They also are essential to our operations as a water company because we abstract river water to create drinking water and then return cleaned wastewater to our rivers.

River water quality can be impacted by nutrient levels, chemical pollution such as metals, ammonia, silt, oxygen hungry bacteria, barriers to fish movement, litter and many other things.

Our wastewater treatment works are subject to permits which limit the levels of potentially harmful nutrients and other things that can damage river health in the discharges of treated water. These permits are set by our environmental regulators and can be changed by them when needed, to reflect the changing needs of the river and the latest scientific research. When this happens, we work with our regulators to improve and upgrade our treatment works.

In Wales, currently 44.5% of our rivers are at ‘good’ ecological status, compared to 14% in England. We will continue to make improvements to bring more rivers up to this standard which is defined by regulators.

There are several factors contributing to river water quality which are not within the control of the water industry. These include rainwater run-off, misconnections of sewer pipes, rural land use such as agriculture, and private septic tanks. The ways in which these potential sources of pollution can impact river water quality can be seen in the models we have developed to understand pollution in our SAC rivers.

We will spend an extra £1.9 billion over and above day to day expenditure in our wastewater business over the five years from 2025 to improve river water quality and make other environmental improvements, compared to £1 billion in the previous five years. The money will be focused on where it can have the biggest environmental benefit, with over £1 billion dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of storm overflows.

Most of the investment is required to meet our regulatory obligations under the National Environment Plan (Wales), and the Water Industry National Environment Plan (for our areas in England).

We will:
  • Meet our commitment set out in our Manifesto for Rivers in Wales by tackling the Storm Overflows that are having the biggest environmental impact, moving 186 SOs from the ‘high' or 'severe' harm categories to the lowest category, with the proportion of SOs causing no harm increasing from 53% to 61% by 2030, and to 100% by 2040.
  • Deliver our part of the Wales Phosphate Summit Action Plan by drastically reducing phosphorous discharges into rivers in Special Areas of Conservation, achieving 90% of the reduction required to eliminate harm to these rivers caused by phosphates from wastewater treatment works discharges, on an agreed ‘fair share’ basis.
  • Reduce the number of pollution events (category 1, 2 and 3) we cause from 89 in 2022 to 68 in 2029, and tackle those assets that cause growing risks of ‘serious’ pollution incidents (category 1 and 2), including the South East Coastal Sewer rising main.
  • Continue to contribute actively to the river Nutrient Management Boards recognising that river water quality can only be tackled by all concerned working in partnership.
  • Return to a 3-star Environmental Performance Assessment rating.
  • Collaborate with our regulators and partners to trial catchment-based permitting systems, and market-type mechanisms, to achieve the maximum improvement in river water quality from the best value source.
Blue icon of a stem with two leaves
Protecting the environment

As one of the biggest companies in Wales, a major energy user, and a provider of essential public services, we have a responsibility to contribute to tackling the climate and nature emergencies.

We have been on a journey to reduce energy use and emissions, having achieved an 80% reduction in operational emissions since 2010.

Our aim is to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions, including embedded emissions, to net zero by 2040.

Between 2025 and 2030, we will:
  • Work in partnership with our stakeholders to improve biodiversity on our land holdings by restoring degraded habitats.
  • Continue to lead on collaborative efforts to better understand how society can tackle environmental efforts fairly and effectively. A recent example is our work on pollution source research, the results of which we have made publicly available.
  • Accelerate efforts to find new ways to operate more sustainably. Our long-term objective is for nature-based and catchment solutions to become the default, and we will continue to work with our regulators to seek the regulatory innovation and flexibility required to enable this.
Aerial view of the River Wye in autumn.
Carbon Footprint

We aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions of both operational and embedded carbon by 2040. We signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ‘Race to Zero’ pledge in February 2021. This obliges a 90% to 95% reduction in our absolute emissions, in line with Science Based Targets, with credible offsets being allowed only by exception, to decarbonise the remaining hard to abate activities and processes.

We will work to ensure continuous improvement of our processes in order to minimise our impact on the environment and we ask our key supply chain partners to help us design innovative “green, nature based” solutions that benefit the environment and society generally, within the fulfilment of our functions. We have a comprehensive six-point plan to address our carbon footprint which has delivered substantial, 70%, reductions in our emissions since our 2010/11 baseline.

We will:
  • Invest in innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment at 30 of our largest WwTW by 2030
  • Enhance 2,000 hectares of peatland to absorb carbon emissions from the atmosphere and deliver wider benefits for nature