A series of norovirus cases were linked to the dirty water in Cardiff Bay which is often quickly spread by human excrement, leading the council to believe raw sewage had leached into the Bay
A spate of norovirus cases last year have been linked to people swimming in a popular bay in Wales.
The water quality in Cardiff Bay was so bad, an inflatable obstacle course floating in the water had to be moved after Cardiff Council scrutiny committee raised concerns last Thursday (September 11). The fresh water lake, fed by the River Ely and River Taff, has suffered from sewage discharge in recent years.
Councilor John Lancaster slated council officers for the issue, saying: “There has to be some sort of pressure from yourselves [council officers] to work with the likes of NRW [Natural Resources Wales] and Welsh Water to address it.”
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Norovirus is a stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhoea and spreads easily through human excremant. “It can be very unpleasant, but usually gets better in about 2 days,” according to the NHS.
Four of the six sites that are tested for water quality in the bay by the Cardiff Harbour Authority (CHA) recorded a ‘fail’ for cleanliness on the day of the committee meeting. “It’s not really good enough, is it?” Cllr Lancaster continued.
“There’s a real danger that poor quality is harming the ability of the Bay to be used by the citizens of Cardiff and businesses. Surely there should be some sort of attempt to address that and not just say, ‘well it’s coming from up stream… it’s out of our hands’.”
Norovirus was deemed to be the cause of a series of illnesses in the summer of 2024 by an incident management team chaired by Public Healthy Wales. Cardiff Council said that “it is presumed that the source of norovirus in the environment would be sewage related,” in a statement to WalesOnline. The CHA used to sample for viruses like norovirus but stopped after none were detected for many years.
Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for culture, sports and parks, Cllr Jennifer Burke rebutted Cllr Lancaster’s criticism. She said: “I don’t think it’s fair to say that we’re just throwing our hands up and saying ‘we’re not doing anything’.
“Cardiff Council are working in partnership and pushing back on Welsh Water and Natural Resources Wales. We’re doing what we can with what legislation exists and obviously there’s part of this that sits with Welsh Government and the leaders that they have available.
“There’s only so much we can do and we are at the end of the waterway so whatever we’re doing locally is making an impact, but we can’t combat what’s happening further up the watercourse.”
Aqa Park, the inflatable obstacle course that had to leave Cardiff Bay following the discovery of contaminated water, used to welcome hundreds of visitors each summer since it opened in 2022. Vale of Glamorgan Council revealed the news that the park had to go in March.
A CHA spokesperson at the time said that “increased rainfall, and the higher river flows” had “increased the number of failed tests.” They maintained they have “no control over the quality of the water that flows into the Bay”.