How about drowned Welsh villages?

DAMS, reservoirs and flooding have been saturating the media over recent times (Western Mail, August 7).

How many readers are aware that Welsh authorities have been responsible for flooding Welsh valleys and displacing their compatriots living there?

In 1884 the Taf Fawr Valley was impounded by Cardiff to provide water for the thirsty capital. The Cantref Reservoir dates from 1892. The farms of Glancrew, Crewisaf, Abercrew and Blaentaf were demolished and flooded. Lower down towards Cefn Coed in the hamlets of Ynysfelin and Nantddu the construction of Llwyn Onn Reservoir took place and opened in 1926.

Ynysfelin was situated on the right bank of the River Taf Fawr, near the bridge which nowadays dramatically rises from the depths of Llwyn Onn Reservoir every summer drought. Before being submerged there were farms, smallholdings, the Red Lion and Farmers’ Arms pubs, a woollen mill and Bethel Baptist Capel founded in 1799. It stood near Troedyrhiw Farm, also flooded never to be seen again.

Just north of Merthyr Tydfil in the Brecon Beacons another displacement exercise took place at Pontsticill in the Taf Fechan Valley. Merthyr needed water and the needs of the majority triumphed over those of the minority. Is there a Brexit lesson here?

The Pontsticill Reservoir was completed in 1927 and is more than two miles long but not without paying the price of flooding eight farms as well as some smallholdings and cottages. Under the reservoir are houses, the vicarage, Capel Taf Fechan, the 15th-century Dolygaer Church and a congregational chapel. The graveyard of Capel Bethlehem was also moved. The distress and hardship suffered by those having to leave homes where generations of their families had lived must have been immense.

Will we see planning permission granted to daub “Cofiwch Llwyn Onn” and “Cofiwch Pontsticill” on sites throughout Wales? I think not. Lyndon Harris Llandeilo