A CALL for Welsh Water to explain what it is doing to tackle pollution in west Wales will be heard by Pembrokeshire councillors next week.

Last month, a Welsh Liberal Democrat analysis of sewage dumping statistics released by Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru says it paint a grim picture for west Wales, with Ceredigion, Preseli Pembrokeshire, and eastern Carmarthenshire all being in the top 10 constituencies in the UK for sewage dumping.

Welsh Liberal Democrats say the figures for West Wales show Ceredigion polluted by sewage 3,681 times in 2022, lasting 30,817 hours.

Neighbouring Preseli Pembrokeshire fared even worse, being polluted by sewage 5,003 times in 2022, lasting 45,902 hours, while Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire was polluted by sewage 3,563 times in 2022 – lasting 26,132 hours.

The River Teifi is also ranked the ninth most sewage polluted in the entire UK with sewage being dumped in the river for 11,801 hours last year, Welsh Liberal Democrats say.

At the May 11 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s full council, Liberal Democrat councillor Alistair Cameron will ask: “Discharge of untreated sewerage is a growing concern around Pembrokeshire’s coast and rivers.

“Please could the leader or appropriate cabinet member arrange a seminar for all members with Dwr Cymru / Welsh Water so that they can explain what they are doing to reduce the discharge of untreated sewerage?”

A spokesman for Welsh Water responded to the analysis last month: “We take our responsibility for protecting the environment seriously but understand the real concerns there are regarding the operation of storm overflows and can assure our customers that this is something we are listening to them about.

“With monitors now on over 99.5 per cent of our overflows, we are able to provide one of the most comprehensive reports on how our storm overflows perform. We are always open with this information by publishing it on our website and report the number of spills to our environmental regulators.

“We also provide real time spill information for key bathing waters to interested bodies, including Surfers Against Sewage and Rivers Trust.

“Our data for 2022 shows that we saw a 12 per cent reduction in the average number of storm releases per storm overflow compared 2021, from 43.5 to 38.3; and a 25 per cent reduction in total spill duration in 2022, from 807512 hrs to 602987.5 hrs.

“While there has been a reduction, which in part is due to the investment work we are undertaking to reduce spills, the reduction has also been influenced by the dry weather we saw last year.

“The total removal of combined storm overflows from our system is unaffordable and would take decades and therefore is not an option but what is in our control is the ability to target investment to CSOs [Combined Storm Overflows] which have the biggest environmental impact.

“That is why we are investing significantly to improve CSOs with £140m being invested between 2020-2025 and a further £420m planned from 2025 to 2030.”