Pollution behind coracle fishing in Carmarthenshire river’s decline

Keith Elias’s family have been fishing on the river for 300 years – he said he only caught one fish this season.

“It’s been in my family for so long, I love carrying the tradition on but it’s getting to the point where you get to the end of the season and you’re not hitting fish.

“You just don’t want to go.”

Last year, the nearby River Teifi was noted as one of the UK’s most polluted rivers, with 2,232 spills lasting more than 22,000 hours recorded in 2024.

It has been reported that some incidents of pollution were made by Welsh Water.

The company said it was investing £889m on storm overflows between 2025 and 2030, including six projects to reduce their impact on the Tywi.

It added: “We are determined to play our part to improve river water quality on the Tywi, but this isn’t just an issue for water companies, collaboration is needed across sectors, including industry and agriculture, to ensure improvements.”

Local people have also shared videos online of discharge across the river, which they claim appear to be from a nearby electronics recycling company Mekatek.

The company has a discharge licence from NRW.

Mekatek said it shared concerns about the drop in sewin and had spent more than “40 years developing and improving our processes to ensure we are not a factor in that reduction”.

It added: “Anyone wishing to understand what we do and how well we do it is more than welcome to arrange to visit the site and view our operations for themselves.”