SICKNESS to swimmers is on the radar of environmental health officers in a county where there has been heightened scrutiny over river pollution.
Concern at pollution of the rivers Usk and Wye has been a high profile issue in recent years with increased amounts of phosphorous, produced in human and animal waste, entering the rivers.
Independent councillor for Usk and Llanbadoc, Meirion Howells, noted there had been 344 notifiable communicable disease reported in Monmouthshire in 2024/25, according to the council’s public protection performance report.
The report, presented to the council’s performance and overview scrutiny committee, stated all those were contacted within target response times.
It was confirmed the figures can be broken down by types of infection, such as e.coli, and Cllr Howells asked: “Do we have swimmers catching it in our rivers? What level do investigators go into to identify the source?”
Principal environmental health officer Alun Thomas said investigators will ask people stricken by a notifiable disease where they have been such as farm visits and about contact with animals and where they’ve eaten.
“Have they been swimming in rivers, and locally, as well is a question,” said Mr Thomas who explained information is recorded on a data base, called Tarian, also used by the health board and other local authorities.
“Anyone else investigating can pick that up. So if someone in Torfaen has been swimming locally, or has been to a restaurant or a takeaway, if there are any suspicious practices the premises can be tagged and any subsequent investigator can see it and think there might be something going on here.”
Mr Thomas reminded councillors of a food poisoning outbreak linked to a takeaway and said: “The outbreak we had in Abergavenny if you have two or three notifications all pointing to the same place, and where there is a link, that’s when we pounce.”
Committee chair Gobion Fawr Conservative Alistair Neill said an outbreak of cryptosporidium, a parasitic infection, linked to a Vale of Glamorgan farm in April and May highlighted the importance of the service’s work.
He said: “About 90 people were ill, some very seriously. This sort of thing does happen and it can be extremely serious.”
