FEARS over pollution in the River Teifi have been reignited as a video shows water ‘running black with slurry’ in one of its major tributaries.

The Cambrian News last month reported there were 240 releases of untreated sewage in the river in 2021, prompting outrage in nearby communities.

Now a video provided by businessman Clinton Jones has raised alarm that the run off from farms is also continues to damage the health of the river.

The video shows alarmingly dark coloured water in the River Cletwr, a main tributary running into the Teifi and through Talgarreg.

Lifelong Talgarreg resident Mr Jones described the condition of the river as ‘heartbreaking’.

“This sort of run off damages the rivers for years and years just when we were hoping the biodiversity would build back,” he said.

“I was brought up on the Cletwr where we used to fish as kids and we used to catch sea trout and brown trout that we nearly three quarters of a pound.

“But like most rivers in Ceredigion they’re void of life these days.

“Intensive farming certainly isn’t helping the situation but Welsh Water (the government agency responsible for water management) also shouldn’t be allowed to discharge sewage. “There needs to be harsher punishments for pollution incidents like these.”

The state of the Cletwr has been reported to environmental regulator Natural Resource Wales (NRW) by members of the community.

Ceredigion environment team leader for NRW, Dr Carol Fielding, said: “We received a number of reports of slurry pollution in the Afon Cletwr at Talgarreg on the evening of Monday 10 October.

“Our responding officers were on site to investigate that same evening, and were on site again all day on 11 October to take samples which have been sent to our laboratory for analysis. “As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further at this stage. “We would like to thank the public for their vigilance and for reporting the matter to our incident team.”

In the River Teifi, ‘dangerous’ levels of the harmful substance phosphate are being closely monitored by authorities after new NRW targets were set to eliminate the chemical last year.

Along with slurry run off, asbestos and lead-lined pipes drainage as well as sewage discharges, the worsening condition of the Teifi is generating huge concern among environmentalists. Many planning applications along the river have been suspended while efforts are made to improve its health.