The boss of Dŵr Cymru defended his high salary during questions at the UK Parliament environment committee. Peter Perry said he believed the payment system was 'reflective of performance'. Yet, in Wales we have seen stories year on year about Dŵr Cymru being responsible for hundreds of thousands of hours of sewage dumping into Welsh Waterways. Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, questioned the record of Dŵr Cymru in recent years.
Dŵr Cymru has had a series of headline grabbing incidents and in January this year as many as 40,000 homes in North Wales were without water following a burst pipe at Bryn Cowlyd Water Treatment Works in Dolgarrog, Conwy. Customers of Dŵr Cymru have also had to endure boil water notices in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area and beaches across Wales have seen some of the highest levels of sewage discharge proportionately across England and Wales.
In 2023, Dŵr Cymru released sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea around Wales for more than 916,000 hours - about 20% of all hours of discharges across Wales and England.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said:
“We’ve seen constant headlines about sewage dumping, service disruptions, and rising customer bills, making it unbelievable that the head of Dŵr Cymru can justify his inflated salary as performance-based.
“With Wales facing four times as many sewage discharges proportionally than England, and Dŵr Cymru customers seeing their household water bills increasing to become the highest in England and Wales, such an exorbitant amount of money paid to the individual behind these decisions is a slap in the face to customers.
“The public shouldn’t be forced to cover the costs of inflated salaries and bonuses for water company executives, especially when these companies have failed to address long-standing issues and delayed critical infrastructure upgrades until it’s too late.”
