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Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has confirmed a sewage spill occurred in the Sirhowy River and suspect it was down to a “misconnection”.

The “pollution incident” was reported on Wednesday June 28 in the stretch of river that passes through Woodfieldside, Blackwood.

In a statement, NRW said: “We are aware of the pollution incident that occurred on Wednesday June 28 impacting approximately 7km of the river Sirhowy near Blackwood and are working with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water to investigate the source.

“The cause of the pollution is likely to be a misconnection. Our officers have been on site to take samples and survey work is being carried out to identify which properties may be misconnected.”

Independent councillor for the Blackwood ward, Nigel Dix, expressed his anger at the incident: “I could smell the river before I saw the colour of it. That’s a stretch I walk everyday rain or shine and it’s ruined it.

“We hadn’t had any rain for weeks so I couldn’t work out why there would be a need to release raw sewage into the river.”

A day before the incident was confirmed by NRW, cllr Dix followed the river upstream to find that it was clearer than the water in Blackwood; confirming his fears.

He continued: “At least they’ve accepted there’s an issue, but the question is now what are they going to do fix it and how long is it going to take?

“Seven kilometres is quite a stretch of water and this is obviously terrible for the environment and wildlife in the river. We keep seeing incidents like this and the people involved need to get their act together to stop it from happening again.”

NRW added: “All pollution incidents are a matter of concern, and we aim to deal with them as quickly as possible.

“People should continue to report any pollution incidents to our hotline open 24/7 on 03000 65 3000. Photographs are always a helpful if possible.”