The operators of a passenger boat on Swansea’s River Tawe have cancelled trips because water levels are so low. Swansea Community Boat Trust’s vessel, Copper Jack, had only been back in action for three weeks following a lengthy refurbishment.
Trustee Elaine Davies said the main issue with river levels to date has been when they’re too high, preventing Copper Jack safely passing under the Tawe bridges. The vessel takes up to 40 passengers plus crew from the marina up the river to a point just before the Morfa Bascule bridge, near the Swansea.com Stadium, and back downstream.
Trips Cancelled Due to Low Water
Exceptionally low rainfall from the latter half of June onwards have depleted rivers across Wales and Copper Jack sailings from last Saturday have been called off. “It doesn’t just disappoint our passengers – it hits our revenue. We’re a charity run entirely by volunteers,” Mrs Davies said.
The trust is monitoring river levels daily and has called off trips up to and including Thursday, July 30, with passengers being offered refunds or rescheduled sailings. As things stand a sailing on Friday, July 31, will go ahead.
River Levels at Record Lows
Mrs Davies said the trust has been liaising with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and that the Tawe was the lowest it’s been for 20 years. “There is a new mud beach at the Swansea Yacht and Sub-Aqua Club and one of our volunteers who lives in the area says he’s seeing rocks he’s never seen in the river before,” she said. “Unless we have substantial rain we’re probably going to have further cancellations.”
The Tawe basin does store and release water when spring tides over-top the barrage but the trust has been erring on the side of caution in recent days. “We could get beached and that would be awful,” said Mrs Davies.
David Guy, Swansea Yacht and Sub-Aqua Club’s commodore, said the Tawe was the lowest he had seen since becoming a club member 50 years ago. “Yachts have been grounded,” he said. He believed silt removal needed to be done more effectively and that timber and debris snagged around the piles of the Sail Bridge were directing water away from the east side of the river basin.
Drought Concerns in Wales
Little if any rain is expected in Swansea this week. The Met Office’s long range forecast said the weather in the UK may become more settled towards the end of the first week of August and that rainfall totals will likely be below normal between August 12 and 26. Wales, however, received 1.6m of rain between July 2025 and the end of June 2026, which was 10% more than the 1991-2020 average.
NRW declared drought status in both north Wales and the Upper Severn last week. Areas in south-east and south-west Wales are currently in “prolonged dry weather status” – the step before a drought is declared. Tracey Dunford, NRW’s lead water resources planner, said: “With no significant rainfall in the immediate forecast, and the risk of further hot weather to come, we remain concerned about further escalating impacts. While the hot, dry weather persists, we’d encourage everyone to use water wisely to help protect our environment.”
