What to do about water and sewerage problems

At the end of the nineteenth century the situation in the rural districts around Llanelli was becoming intolerable; there was no sewerage and many of the wells and springs were polluted. A suitably abundant and safe source of water was required to provide  a constant supply.

So it happened that the Vicar of Pembrey, formerly the vicar of Llansadwrn and Llanwrda, the Rev. D. Jones, was a member of the Rural District Council. He proposed investigating Llyn y Fan Fach to the north of Llangadog in the Tywi Valley as a possible reservoir for a water supply to Llanelli. The whole Council had to visit the proposed site. They took train to Llangadog from where they proceeded by pony and trap nine miles up to Blaenau Farm and then on foot for another one-and-a-half miles climbing eight hundred feet.

Various geological and engineering reports were carried out and the Act of Parliament required was obtained in 1912 and work started in 1914 to raise the levels of the lake with a dam and put in a 25 mile water main to a service reservoir at Llannon, ten miles of which had to be driven through solid rock.  From the service reservoir water was distributed to Hendy,  Tycroes, Llangennech and the Gwendraeth Valley

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The state of the water supply in the rural district of Llanelli at the time was considered to be so bad that work was allowed to continue despite the outbreak of war in August of that year.

Work started in 1914 with the contractors recruiting Irish labour from Swansea and Llanelli Labour Exchanges.  Conditions were harsh with accommodation provided in two wooden huts sleeping 175 men and a small shop for supplies, all located in a camp near the works, at an inhospitable height of 1200 feet above sea level.

 

 

 

Heneb - The Trust for Welsh Archaeology