Dwr Cymru has found itself in hot water yet again after its wastewater treatment works in Cardigan was found to have spilled raw sewage into the river on no fewer than 304 days throughout 2022.

This amounts to an alarming 83 per cent of the total number of days in the year.

The recording system says that if a spill occurs in a particular 15-minute period it could last for between 60 seconds and 15 minutes. But in their recent report to Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Water records that all spills lasted for 15 minutes.

Now locals are demanding an urgent redress of the situation before they witness what they fear will be the death of the River Teifi.

“Unless something gets done urgently the River Teifi, which is undoubtedly one of our greatest natural assets, is going to die,” said ’Save the Teifi’ campaigner, Piers Partridge.

Welsh Water has announced its intention to invest around £20m to alleviate the issue during its next investment period. But this means that any investment proposals won’t begin taking effect until between 2025 and 2030.

“Our concern is that by then, it’ll be too late,” continued Piers Partridge.

“If these unacceptably high spillages have only been taking place over the last 12 months, then maybe things can be remedied. But we’ve been given no indication for how long it’s been happening. For all we know, Welsh Water has been willingly allowing the spills to occur for the last 20 years.”

The spillage data has been compiled on figures from the Cilgerran and Llechryd pumping stations and the Cardigan wastewater treatment works, situated near to the Netpool.

Their data confirms that discharges from the Cilgerran and Llechyrd pumping stations took place in the wetter winter months; throughout January, February, March, April, October, November and December, the spills were intense and occurred virtually every day.

But spills from the Cardigan treatment site were occurring at even more regular intervals, including the dry summer months.

Welsh Water claim this is the result of ‘saline instrusion’, or seawater, entering the works during high tides.

“Our data for Cardigan Wastewater Treatment Works shows that there have been a number of spills from the site during the summer months and this is something we have been investigating and trying to resolve for some time,” commented a Welsh Water spokesperson.

“This intrusion is in turn affecting the treatment process, which can then exceed the current flow capacity.

“We are working closely with Natural Resources Wales on this matter, and they are aware of our plans to invest around £20m to alleviate this issue during our next investment period (2025 – 2030).”

Meanwhile campaigners fear the continual discharges are resulting in increasing nutrient levels in the river. This results in the further spread of algae bloom which deprives the water of oxygen meaning that fish, birds and other natural plant life are seeing a steady decline.

“If Welsh water has knowingly been allowing these spillages to continue for a long period of time, this, in my opinion, is criminal,” concluded Piers Partridge.

 “They must now come clean and inform us precisely how long this has been happening and must do everything possible to prevent it from happening again, even if this means more government investment.”