A Senedd member has demanded that Dŵr Cymru, or Welsh Water, invest more money in pumping stations after beachgoers reported raw sewage “seeping” on to a popular beach in north Wales during the peak of the school summer holidays.
The effluent ran on to West Shore, near Llandudno, from under the roller-shutter door of a pumping station at the beach’s car park, Janet Finch-Saunders, MS for Aberconwy, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“It is not acceptable. Our hotels are working flat out to accommodate our visitors. The kids are off school.
“This is when residents and visitors want to take a dip in the sea. Surfers Against Sewage are also finding that beaches in north Wales in my constituency have pollution levels that are much too high.
“I’ve written to Welsh Water … They are going to have to invest some money to stop this happening.”
Dŵr Cymru is a not-for-profit that supplies drinking and wastewater services to most of the country. Data suggests it is the worst offender of all UK water companies for sewage pollution.
The company said that the leak had been caused by a blockage but that “foul water” did not reach the beach or “enter any watercourse and had no detrimental environmental impact”.
A crew had attended to clear the blockage of wet wipes and carried out a deep cleaning using specialist kit, a spokesperson said, adding that “the issue of sewer abuse and the resulting flooding costs the company around £5m a year”.
Last month, the Welsh government body Natural Resources Wales (NRW) found that in 2024, Dŵr Cymru was responsible for the highest number of sewage pollution incidents in a decade – a 42% increase over 10 years. Six serious incidents were recorded, down from seven in 2023.
Dŵr Cymru has faced a slew of legal and regulatory action, including a £40m fine in March 2024 from Ofwat which concluded the company had “misled customers and regulators on its performance on leakage and per capita consumption”.
Urgent changes to the sector promised by NRW include a new monitoring team, guidance on hitting improvement targets linked to new pollution reduction legislation and a tightened framework for annual performance assessments.
Under UK government plans to scrap Ofwat, Wales is to get its own water watchdog. It is not yet clear whether this will be a new organisation or whether NRW will take on an expanded role.
