Children running risks of ill health by swimming in untreated water

SOME of my constituents who frequently walk the Taff Trail between Mountain Ash and Tyntetown are concerned for the safety of youngsters swimming in the River Cynon.

Their concerns were heightened because they also spotted rats in the riverbank. Nothing unusual there, other than the fear that rats spread diseases and that there was an incident of Weils disease a few years ago in Mountain Ash and the person died as a consequence.

It is only natural for children to seek to cool down in the very hot weather we recently endured but they should be very mindful of the risks of swimming in untreated water.

The river is much cleaner now than it was in my childhood, when coal was king, but I am not convinced it is clean enough to swim in.

I spent a lot of my youth swimming in Mountain Ash outdoor baths or over the Cwm towards Ynysybwl where the water was crystal clear.

I don’t want to spoil the sense of adventure of our young people but I am concerned that they don’t know the risks they are running.

I will be asking the council to issue public health advice on this matter.

The Education Secretary recently announced that the GCSE results are expected to take a dip across Wales this summer.

She has obviously had some feedback to make that prediction but I wish she had kept it to herself for the time being.

All she has achieved by making this early announcement is that when the final results are known she can say well I did predict this in early July so it is old news. No thought for the students who between now and the end of August will worry more about their grades as a result of that announcement.

Still it gives the Welsh Government, on the day that the results are announced, the headline “We told you so”.

Well I for one hope they are proven wrong and that they are the best results ever. Well done children, be positive.