SEWAGE plants around the Cleddau are to have new equipment to reduce phosphates entering the river through treated waste water as part of a £16 million Welsh Water improvement scheme.

Phosphates are found in human waste and fertilisers and cause algae growth which kills off biodiversity and causes toxins in the water.

Spittal sewage plant will be the first to see works begin, with £5.5 million of planned works, with similar improvements planned for the plants at Letterston, Rosemarket and Wolfscastle.

Welsh Water’s project manager Dan Purchase said works are set to finish in March 2025 but improvements to the levels of phosphates could be seen as soon as September.

Western Telegraph: Dan Purchase, a project manager for Welsh Water, Owain Coombes, catchment operational supervisor and Steve Wilson, managing director of Welsh Water’s Wastewater (L-R).Dan Purchase, a project manager for Welsh Water, Owain Coombes, catchment operational supervisor and Steve Wilson, managing director of Welsh Water’s Wastewater (L-R). (Image: Supplied)

Managing director of Welsh Water’s Wastewater, Steve Wilson said the work was a priority and would lead to “dramatic improvements” to the Cleddau.

He said: “We have got 164 sewage treatment works discharging into SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) rivers  – the Wye, the Usk, the Cleddau, the Teifi.  All of those are failing their phosphorus standards so we have got to invest in this next five year period huge sums of money to tackle the phosphorus problem.”

Welsh Water say that waste water accounts for 22 per cent of the phosphates in the Cleddau, saying that land management and agriculture are also contributing to the problem.

Another issue for the river, Steve said, is the more extreme weather we have seen over recent years.  

He explained: ”We are seeing increasing peak wet weather and then drier periods and that really causes problems for the treatment works, they weren’t designed to cope with such an increase in range. So managing that rain water, that storm water is also part of the problem we have got to deal with here.”

Steve said that storm overflows – when storm water is released into waterways to prevent it from backing up into houses, are operating “far too frequently in Wales”. But, he said, the cost of improving the sewage network to deal with the problem will be expensive.

 He said: “We have got one of the biggest combined sewer networks out of all the water companies.

“There are 1.3 million households in Wales and there's 2,300 storm overflows and 800 treatment works to upgrade. That’s a huge number of assets to pay for.”

While the company is working through improvements he said customers could also do more to reduce the amount of rain water entering the water system.

He said: “Customers can help by soaking (rainwater) away in their gardens. Even water butts help dramatically in terms of being able to hold back that rainwater and adding to the overflow problem.”

He added: “We have got to find ways of working with local authorities, working with customers, getting every opportunity we can to get that surface water taken out, and if customers can help us by disconnecting that rain water, building a pond in their garden, putting water butts in, finding ways of soaking that rainwater away rather than putting it in to the nearest drain then that is helping reduce storm overflows in Wales.”