Capacity of the network (drainage and wastewater management plan): action plan

To understand the scale of improvement needed we need to assess the capacity of the drainage and sewerage networks over the long term.

To do this a Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) has been developed and will be consulted on by water companies with customers, stakeholders, regulators, and local authorities.

The DWMP will be comprehensive, evidence based and transparent in assessing, as far as possible, current capacity and actions needed in a 5year, 10 year and 25-year periods considering risks and issues such as climate change.  It will align, as far as possible, with other strategic and policy planning tools.  It will aim to deliver resilient drainage and sewerage networks that meet operational and other pressures and minimise system failures.  

In developing the plan the impact of drainage systems on the immediate and wider environmental outcomes including habitats will be considered and in developing solutions, options for environmental net gain and enhancement will be included.

The DWMP will be collaborative and recognise the importance of sectors working together to respond to current and future risks to water quality and customer service as well as the need to deliver effective solutions, setting out how they will do this, and how stakeholders have been engaged and responded to. The plan will improve customer outcomes and awareness of the solutions needed to protect the environment as well as understand that the actions will provide both value for money and benefits to society as a whole.

The plan should show leadership in considering each organisation’s operational capacity to develop and deliver the plan and be mindful of linkages with other strategic planning frameworks.  Finally the plan will be developed in line with the behaviours set out in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015 and explain how they will contribute towards the wellbeing outcomes. DWMPs will also help water companies and their stakeholders deliver their obligations under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.

The outcome of the DWMP will be a plan that, subject to the consultation response, will put storm overflows in the areas served by Dwr Cymru and Hafren Dyfrdwy on a path to improved understanding of their impact with the aim of eliminating ecological harm to the environment.  

Short term outcomes will focus on better understanding, decision support tools and development of an adaptive pathway to show how the plan may need to change over time in response to the challenges of growth, climate change and urban creep and changes in regulation.  The plan will, subject to the consultation responses from stakeholders and customers, include investment proposals for reducing storm overflow spills in AMP8, establish the timescales over which reductions to storm overflow discharges, along with reducing the risk of flooding, should be delivered and indicate areas where other Risk Management Authorities are critical to the delivery of these outcomes. 

The actions being taken forward within this workstream are all aligned to the Welsh Government Programme for Government 2021-26 and the Wellbeing goals of:

• Building a stronger, greener economy as we make maximum progress towards decarbonisation.
• Make our cities, towns and villages even better places in which to live and work.
• Embed our response to the climate and nature emergency in everything we do.
• Begin to designate Wales’ inland waters for recreation, strengthening water quality monitoring.