Letter to the Editor: I read your article on sewage discharge (The poop in your water, Cambrian News, 2 November). As a runner and swimmer and father and grandfather this concerns me deeply.

While the article was very detailed, I thought it failed to put in plain language what is the crux of the problem. It is simply this. If the gutter downpipes from your house goes into the same gully outlet as your bath/kitchen and then the public sewer, your house is very much part of the problem and very often there is something that you can do about it. You can check this by lifting a sewage system manhole cover when it’s raining and see if fresh water is pouring into the sewer.

If you have a garden, a householder has the ability to stop this for not a huge investment. This can be done during a renovation or a landscaping project by incorporating separate storm water gullies leading to a soak away or a porous bottomed pond or reed bed. My wife and I have done this on our old farmhouse during a renovation. There are building regulations involved but it’s an easy DIY project or a builder can be employed. It will cost less than the cost of a foreign holiday for a week.

In our older towns it’s not so easy and I think it should be centrally tackled along with home insulation. Farmers must also play their part by avoiding spreading slurry alongside streams and rivers and even better, planting a band of trees alongside waterways to filter out contaminants.

Tony Hodgson,

Llanelltyd