One of Pembrokeshire’s most prized beaches, Barafundle Bay, is the latest local beach to have been issued with a fresh sewage pollution warning by the Safer Seas and Rivers Service.

The announcement was made last night (Thursday, August 25), when SSRS confirmed that the area has been contaminated by raw sewage which has been discharged from a nearby sewer overflow.

Further pollution alerts have been put in place at Saundersfoot and Wisemans Bridge, and members of the public are being advised to avoid swimming in each of these three locations.

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The sewage pollution outbreak has prompted widespread concern in ech of the affected areas.

“It all appears to have come to light this week but we’ve been noticing a potential problem for a considerable length of time,” commented a resident at Wisemans Bridge.

“Two weeks ago a friend of mine counted ten dead trout in the water further upstream towards Stepaside which suggests that things weren't as they should have been.”

In a statement released yesterday, Dwr Cymru are pointing the finger of blame on the heavy rain which has hit South Pembrokeshire over the last few days.

“This meant that some of our combined storm overflows (CSOs) operated which is what they’re designed to do when the waste water network in an area reaches capacity due to the volume of rainwater,” said a Dwr Cymru spokesperson.

“This prevents sewers from flooding customers’ homes and businesses.

"Whilst we cannot completely remove CSOs from our system as it would cost anywhere between £9 - £14 billion and involve digging up almost every street in Wales, our CSOs are mainly operating as designed and permitted. However we recognise that with environmental legislation tightening and customer expectations changing, more needs to be done to improve their performance.”

Dwr Cymru will be investing £836m in its wastewater network over the next three years as well as an additional £100million investment which will include further improvements to CSOs.