This week the Cambrian News has taken a long and hard look at the way our seas and waterways are being harmed by uncontained sewage discharges up and down our nation.

Here, as 2022 draws to a close, are we seriously expected to believe and accept that those responsible for our sewage and its proper disposal, are unable to do so in a safe and environmentally friendly manner?

Heck, the Romans managed to treat their sewage effectively. But now, two millennia later, we are up to our necks in it.

The people of this region ought to be angry. More sewage is discharged in west Wales than anywhere else in Wales or England.

That’s a damning statement, one that might be written in a third world nation. Here, in Wales, where our beaches, rivers, estuaries and streams ought to be a focal point in our natural environment and a draw for tourists, they are treated like sewage pipes by those legally — and morally — responsible for the disposal of our effluent.

Figures from water provider Dŵr Cymru and regulator Natural Resources Wales (NRW) show Gwynedd was particularly badly affected.

Analysis by website Top of the Poops estimates the constituency of Dwyfor Meirionnydd, covering the majority of the county, saw the second highest number of sewage overflows in England and Wales during 2021.

In neighbouring Ceredigion, the analysis suggests there were just over 4,000 discharges totalling more than 40,200 hours of sewage being released – the ninth longest duration in England and Wales last year.

It also shows there were a further 3,700 dumps for nearly 30,000 hours in total in the constituency of Arfon in the northern most area of Gwynedd county – which put the area in the top 20 longest periods of overflow.

If our governments took their environmental responsibilities seriously — and claiming that Aldi can’t build in Aberystwyth because of flood plain isn’t credible — they would be taking our water authorities to task. Instead, private water companies are legally entitled to release sewage to relieve pressure on the system during periods of extreme weather.

As a result, we all now live in an effluent society. Shame.