Threat to the future of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

There's worrying news of a threat to the future of a beautiful Welsh waterway:

Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe David Chadwick has challenged the Welsh Government, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Natural Resources Wales over plans to limit the water supply to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.

The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal relies heavily on water abstractions from the River Usk, which runs alongside the canal for much of its length, providing over 80% of the water required.

The canal was originally exempt from rules governing abstraction from the Water Resources Act 1991, but in 2017 this exemption was removed. Now, Natural Resources Wales are looking to enforce limits on how much water may be abstracted from the Usk. ...

The Canal and River Trust now has to pay for the extra water they use to keep the canal alive, but do not have any new income to pay for it with the annual cost possibly in excess of £1m a year.

That was posted on the Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe Lib Dem's website a month ago, and there does not seem to have been any breakthrough in the talks between the authorities involved.

A couple of days ago Nation Cymru quoted Mark Evans from Glandŵr Cymru, the body that looks after canals in Wales:

"Our charity acted to safeguard the much-loved canal over the summer months, with additional water purchased from Welsh Water. This is whilst an affordable long-term solution is found - which will need the collective help of Welsh Water, the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales.

"As an emergency measure we have diverted money away from planned maintenance and repairs across our canal network to secure a water supply this summer.  However, it isn’t sustainable for our charity to bear this cost alone."

Given that the canal is now more than two centuries old, you wonder whether its continued health is now as important as that of the River Usk. We don't begrudge protecting the Norfolk Broads because they are flooded medieval peat workings.

Anyway, I ought to declare an interest here. The picture above shows the canal at Llanfoist Wharf near Abergavenny, and I had a very happy week's holiday with a cousin of my mother's at Llanfoist when I was 14. That week is in part responsible for my love of the landscapes of the Welsh border.

The canal around Llanfoist and its tramways were the setting for Alexander Cordell's novel The Rape of the Fair Country - a sort of poor Welshman's version of How Green Was My Valley.