Sewage: Sea swimmers want political action on pollution

Swimmers and surfers have said they are afraid to go to sea because of the fear of sewage.

Ahead of the general election, campaigners said they wanted to see change because “people are getting sick”.

Surfers Against Sewage said it was hearing about “alleged illegal dumping” almost every day.

While wastewater may be discharged by water companies under certain circumstances, pollution may also be caused by other industries such as agriculture and construction.

Langland Bay in Gower, Swansea county, attracts hundreds of swimmers and surfers, but swim group leader Howard Jones said fewer people now want to dive.

“It’s not just Langland, Caswell, Swansea, I’m hearing about kids with ear infections or stomach infections. It is difficult to define it.

“Certainly, in the last six months we’ve had more and more people complaining about this issue.”

Sally Howells, 57, travels from Cardiff to Gower to swim and tracks sewage discharge alerts.

“I’m scared to go in to be completely honest,” she said. “It is dangerous to go swimming”.

Keen swimmer Rupert Miles, 62, said he thought his recent ailments may have been linked to sea swimming.

“I’ve had a couple of bouts of pretty bad stomach flu that I’ve been to the doctors for,” he said.

“You don’t want to blame, but they said ‘you swim in the sea, it could be sewage’.

Caris Bowen, 32, trains in open water swimming and prefers to teach on a spring water lake in Glynneath rather than the sea.

“I have to check an app every day to see if it’s safe for us,” she said.

“It’s gotten a lot worse… it’s worrying. It’s going to have a massive effect on my business.”

When rainfall is heavy, treatment plants can discharge untreated sewage to prevent system overload.

However, if plants emit more wastewater than they are allowed to emit, they may be in violation of their permits.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which monitors water in Wales, was asked to comment but declined.

Wales Water, which provides services to most communities in Wales, previously said that illegal discharge of untreated sewage was “unavoidable” given the scale and age of its infrastructure.

The water firm said it would have invested over £1.4 billion in its wastewater system by 2025 and is working closely with regulators.

Many powers relating to the water industry have been devolved to Wales, but campaigners at Surfers Against Sewage said they wanted all politicians to work together.

“It’s almost a daily occurrence that we’re hearing about alleged illegal spills,” Alun Moseley said.

“We are hearing stories of people getting sick.

“We’re past the point of hearing empty promises. We need to see change.”

Welsh Water said it took responsibility for protecting washing waters seriously and was investing in environmental projects.

“There are a number of contributing factors that affect washing and river water quality in general. These include agricultural runoff and animal faeces, urban surface water runoff and poorly connected canals,” he said.

“We are committed to working closely with regulators and other sectors to ensure we do all we can to protect the environment.”

Labor insisted its Welsh Government was “leading the charge” to “tackle all sources of pollution”.

“A UK Labor government will continue to press for improvements, including giving regulators powers to block the payment of bonuses to drivers who pollute our waterways.”

The Conservatives said the UK government was “holding water companies to task by subjecting polluters to unlimited fines”.

“Welsh Conservatives have long called for Labor and NRW to hold water firms to account and issue fines.”

Plaid Cymru cited an “outdated sewerage network” and a “lack of robust devolved powers” in Wales.

“Plaid Cymru strongly believes that water supply and treatment in Wales should ultimately be managed by a single publicly owned body,” he said.

“We would also formally seek powers from the UK government to license wastewater in Wales.”

While the Liberal Democrats have not yet published their manifesto in Wales, the party’s UK branch says it will “strive for the protection of rivers and coastlines”.

“It is a complete scandal that the UK Conservative Government and the Welsh Labor Government have allowed water firms to get away with polluting our waterways here in Wales,” he said.

Reform UK said it would “put in place a proper system of regulation with very heavy fines for water companies that pollute our natural environment”.

“It is unacceptable that overseas shareholders are getting rich while prices are inflated and raw sewage is pumped into our rivers and seas.”

The Green Party said it was “a complete scandal that people no longer feel safe swimming in our seas”.

“The only way to end this scandal is to bring the water companies back into public ownership.”