§ 30. Mrs. Kellett-Bowmanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take the initiative to promote international agreements to protect main river estuaries from pollution by industrial and domestic effluent, and not to confine such agreements to pollution of the seas only.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerI have already taken the initiative in proposing to other Governments concerned that any international agreement for protecting the North Sea should deal with pollution reaching the sea from rivers and estuaries and not by dumping from ships only. There are domestic powers available to protect our estuaries from discharges of effluent.
§ Mrs. Kellett-BowmanI thank my right hon. Friend for his reply, but might I ask him not to allow himself—and I am sure he will not—to be bounced into an international agreement by the United States, which has extremely dirty rivers and is anxious to get international agreement regarding the seas only and then to wash its hands of the whole matter?
§ Mr. WalkerI hope not in the rivers! We have made it perfectly clear that the British Government would welcome an agreement which did not just cover dumping at sea, which in regard to the seas in Europe is a fairly minor problem compared with the massive pollution of our seas from rivers and seaside towns.
§ Mr. MaddanWill my right hon. Friend take advantage of the closening relations between Britain and the countries of Western Europe to press this matter with them with every possible vigour since we all have an interest in clean seas on this side of the Atlantic?
§ Mr. WalkerI have already had talks with the Ministers responsible in both Germany and France.