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Prof John Stoner OBE
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 Posted - 12 November 2006 : 16:00:00
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Having been appointed to serve on the West Wales River Basin District Panel, I am keen to receive views; and, via this Forum, I'll do my best to answer questions about the purpose, process and progress of the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) for our rivers. I should add that most of Wales is covered by a single RBMP, but with the Dee in North Wales and the Severn-Wye-Taff rivers in the south covered by two other Plans.
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Anonymous posting
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Submitted - 12 November 2006
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| Why do we need a Water Framework Directive? What can we do with it that we can't do already with the present laws if they are properly enforced? |
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John Stoner |
Posted - 12 November 2006 : 16:50:46
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The WFD replaces a plethora of non-joined-up legislation. It requires management of whole catchments from source to sea (including groundwaters as well as surface water). This is to be the future basis for managing water supplies to industry, farms and homes; for controlling pollution; and for mitigation of floods and droughts. Another big difference is that water quality will be assessed not merely by sampling for a range of chemicals but also by assessing the ecological quality of waterbodies, including rivers. |
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| Anon 2 |
Submitted - 12 November 2006
How long before the WFD comes into force? |
John Stoner |
Posted - 13 November 2006 : 09:57:12
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The Water Framework Directive came into force in December 2000 with a phased programme of implementation into EU Member States' legislation. The monitoring programme has already started, and next year the issues and objectives - what's wrong and what must be changed to put things right - must be agreed for each River Basin. The details of the management plans will then be developed in 2008, which is where the Panel that I serve on has a key role to play. Then from 2009 to 2012 the RBD plans must be acted upon so that by 2015, unless there are very special reasons why not, the WFD objectives must all be met - rivers must be in good chemical, physical and ecological condition. |
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| Anon 2 |
Submitted - 13 November 2006
But that's my point. Will the objectives be demanding enough to lead to noticeable improvements? What about those exemptions... isn't that going to provide a get-out clause for anything that turns out to be difficult or expensive to sort out? |
John Stoner |
Posted - 13 November 2006 : 14:05:29
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Our job - and I mean all of us who care about the natural environment and our rivers and lakes in particular - is to ensure that the objectives really are tough but realistic. We have to make our inputs to the process, via the Local and District Panels, but we can expect polluting industries, farming, abstractors and others whose actions are currently causing damage or putting rivers at risk to lobby for objectives that can be met without too much trouble and expense. |
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