§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will announce the date by which secondary treatment of waste water and sewage will be required under the terms of the European Union's Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive; and if he will make a statement. [66350]
§ Mr. MacdonaldThe Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive and our own Regulations require secondary treatment to be applied for discharges to normal waters (i.e. those not designated as sensitive or less sensitive) from communities with population equivalents above 15,000 by the end of 2000. The same standard of treatment must be applied to discharges from smaller communities by the end of 2005.
Compliance with the Directive is a major initiative for the Scottish Water Authorities who will be undertaking capital investment programmes costing £1.5 billion, over the next three years, to modernise the water and sewage industry.