Local resident, David Haines-Hanham is behind the protest which saw over 70 local residents cover the gates of the treatment works with anti-sewage posters and messages from the local community.
These included slogans such as “I came here to swim, not to marinade in bum broth” and “Welsh Water – No more turd waves”.
Mr Haines-Hanham explained: “This started a couple of years ago when I was stand-up paddleboarding with my daughter Mabli. It was a nice day. It hadn’t rained for 24 hours. We were coming back from Caswell to Brandy Cove. The water was about a metre deep and we were enjoying looking at the seaweed and the rocks. All of a sudden where the pipe outfall is the water turns a disgusting brown. The smell is unmistakeable. The filth was horrible. It was unmistakably a sewage slick.
“Next time we were walking along the cliffs just before one of the autumn storms were coming in. It hadn’t rained for two days. We looked over to Brandy Cove. It was high tide and there was an unmistakeable brown patch again with all the black headed gulls having a feast. In my mind it was a sewage slick in preparation for a storm that hadn’t even happened yet.”
Mr Haines-Hanham says he has a clear message for Welsh Water. “You’ve failed to futureproof your infrastructure. Since the UV treatment was brought in, it doesn’t seem to me that you’ve looked to the future. You haven’t looked 20 years time, which is where we are now. You’ve done nothing to prepare for the prevention of pollution incidents.
“I don’t know much about the politics of Welsh Water, but I do know they’ve just asked us as bill payers for more money. I say just use that money – our money – to mend your outdated systems. Put money in the right places to make our sea cleaner.”
Mr Haines-Hanham said: “I’ve explained the ‘snowball effect’ to my kids, and their hope is that our small action will encourage and inspire other communities to do similar at treatment works that regularly underperform and allow sewage to be released into the sea.”
Meanwhile Welsh Water say they’re investing £2.5bn on environmental projects over the next 5 years and that some pollution issues are due to surface-water run-off and poorly maintained private septic systems.
A spokesperson for Welsh Water said: “Storm overflows play a vital role in preventing homes being flooded following heavy rain.
“We cannot completely remove storm overflows as it would cost between £9-£14 billion and involve digging up almost every street in Wales.
“We understand there is increased concern about water quality and we are working to improve things with £2.5bn investment on environmental projects in our current investment period (2025-30).
“This comes after we invested £1.4bn in our wastewater system in the decade to 2025, which helped ensure Wales’ amazing coastline is blessed with almost a quarter of the UK’s Blue Flag beaches despite having just 15% of its coastline.
“The latest Bathing Water results for Wales also showed that 98% of the designated bathing waters meet stringent quality standards – with almost 70% meeting the highest ‘Excellent’ water quality standard.
“A number of factors can impact water quality including surface water runoff, misconnections – as we saw recently in a social media video shared of waste on the rocks between Langland and Rotherslade, rural land use and poorly maintained private septic tanks.
“You can get accurate and up-to-date information on spills from our storm overflows on this map.”
In response to Welsh Water’s statement, Mr Haines-Hanham reflected on the launch of regulator OfWat’s pollution enforcement investigation into Welsh Water in July 2024.
A similar investigation into Thames Water resulted in fines of nearly £123m for the company.
He said: “I only speak from the experience of what one family has experienced on one beach. Our experiences were categorically NOT during heavy rain periods.
“I also dispute the claim that the overflow map is accurate having been given conflicting information on the day I spoke to them.
“Have we just been incredibly unlucky/lucky to witness these things or have Welsh Water just been getting away with it unnoticed?
“I’ve a feeling that their increase in investment is a result of the start of this investigation and I would love to see a breakdown of investment from the last 20 years compared to money taken from customers.
“As one sign said on Saturday – ‘You take our money now take some responsibility’ and another one saying ‘They have failed to futureproof infrastructure – use OUR extra money to mend your outdated system’.”
Thank you for publishing this, I would add that this wasn’t just me that organised this. My kids wanted to and they did leaflet drops and flyers to promote it.
I merely facilitated giving them a voice in an issue that they feel strongly about. None of us have ever taken part in activism and I was really pleased for them that THEIR demo was such a success.