Monday 1st June, 2026
One of Plaid Cymru’s manifesto pledges was to make more use of natural solutions to resolve problems facing rivers and the communities that live next to them. The new Government has recognised the role these approaches can play in tackling flooding, improving river health, strengthening farming resilience and adapting to climate change.
The challenge now is to turn these pledges into practice.
The concept of nature-based solutions is not new in Wales. We are the UK leader in sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), which are mandatory for any construction area over 100m².
But while other areas of Welsh policy and law also point in the right direction (such as the Future Generations Act), Wales can go further with nature-based solutions. The foundations are already there.
Wales is the UK leader in using nature to reduce flood risk in towns and cities through the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS)
Nature’s role in making Wales more resilient
On their own, nature-based solutions will not fix all the problems for rivers and those that live next to them. Traditional infrastructure such as flood defences and sewage treatment works still have a role to play, of course.
However, if implemented properly, they can have a significant positive impact in restoring river health, protecting communities, creating more resilience in farming, improving biodiversity and climate adaptation, better public access and well-being.
So, if nature is to play its part in this, what needs to change?
Working across whole catchments
If natural solutions are to have a positive impact under the Plaid Government, river-related issues need to be considered over whole catchments and involve all sectors.
Government planning and its funding for councils, farmers, Natural Resources Wales and other organisations needs to be co-ordinated and aligned. It also needs to work with water company investment and the work of NGOs.
For too long we have tried to fix issues by funding one sector or organisation to work in one place, what is otherwise known as “siloed” working. This is not the most efficient way of using ever-decreasing funds for environmental work.
Simplified planning
The current complex myriad of different planning strategies (drainage and wastewater, water resources, flooding) and of different planning periods (5 or 25 year cycles for water companies, 6-year cycles for regulatory reporting) also make investment in natural solutions very difficult.
Integrating water industry planning with national planning in Wales would deliver even more benefit. Having major reporting cycles that are at odds with each other means that monitoring, data, analysis, assessments and outcomes are not aligned or comparable.
Graphic from Coed Cadw showing how nature-based solutions helped a Vale of Glamorgan farm to build resilience and improve water quality (click to view full size PDF) The project involved partners that included the South East Wales Rivers Trust.
Better governance
Our regulatory planning system also lacks the ambition and innovation required to support NbS.
We require a system that is less cumbersome. It needs to be proportional to what we are trying to deliver, gives simplified permitting and planning options for small schemes or environmental improvements, incorporates a risk-based approach and can work faster to deliver outcomes while also providing the protection our environment needs.
The national systems planner for Wales proposed in the water reform Green Paper in February was to be given a key role to review and reform spatial planning in Wales. We hope the new Government supports that.
The need for natural solutions to become mainstream
Up to now, Government policy has regarded nature-based solutions more as an interesting add-on or side shoot to traditional infrastructure upgrades and hard engineering.
But if Wales and its rivers, communities and farmers are to become more resilient in the future, working with nature must become part of the mainstream, not the exception.
Wales has the evidence, the political mandate and the ambition to scale up nature-based solutions. The next step is ensuring commitments on flooding, farming, cleaner rivers, woodland creation and river restoration are joined together into a coherent national programme for catchment resilience.
This is the direction the new Welsh Government now needs to move in.