New water quality monitoring equipment will be installed in the River Towy estuary this summer, a senior Carmarthenshire county councillor has confirmed.

Cllr Aled Vaughan Owen said the move was part of work being undertaken by groups in West Wales called nutrient management boards.

Three boards were set up in response to concerns about phosphorus levels in Towy, Teifi and Cleddau river catchment areas with special area of conservation status.

Cllr Vaughan Owen, Carmarthenshire County Couuncil’s cabinet member for climate change, decarbonisation and sustainability, said the Towy special area of conservation was not failing phosphorus targets unlike the other two rivers.

A nutrient management board website said high levels of phosphorus – a naturally-occurring element – caused algal blooms which reduced a river’s oxygen levels and overall water quality and produced harmful toxins.

It said phosphorus in the Teifi mainly came from wastewater discharges while the source was mainly agriculture in the Towy and Cleddau. The website said the Teifi was failing its phosphate targets, as were eastern and western sections of the Cleddau. It said the Towy was passing targets although not all sections of the river catchment had been assessed.

Cllr Vaughan Owen had been asked at a meeting of full council by Cllr Lewis Davies if he felt the board was delivering the pace and scale of improvement needed to restore the Towy special area of conservation to a favourable condition.

The Plaid Cymru cabinet member stressed that the board was focusing on prevention and wider ecological recover, not remediation following failure.

He said the board “must continue to mature with growing focus on delivery outcomes and measurable improvement on the ground”.

The nutrient management boards bring together councils, Welsh Water, regulators and representatives from agriculture. Their purpose is to put a plan in place to improve the rivers’ ecological condition while helping to pave the way for development which fully considered environmental impacts.

New housing, wastewater and agricultural developments have to demonstrate they don’t add more phosphorus nutrients to the water. Mitigation measures include new areas of wetland, sustainable drainage, buffer strips by rivers and less farming run-off.

Cllr Vaughan Owen said the estuary monitoring equipment being installed in the Towy would strengthen the evidence base for future action.

“Our rivers, wetlands and coastline shape our communities, support livelihoods and give us a sense of belonging to a place,” he said.

Cllr Davies said there was an appetite from people living along the River Towy to play a part in the work.

Cllr Vaughan Owen said recent pollution incidents reported by the public had shown the value of community vigilance, and that he would share details about how people could get involved in the nutrient management boards’ work. Protecting rivers, he said, “is not just the responsibility of institutions”.

The council said the Towy estuary sensors being installed would measure water quality indicators and nutrients such as ammonium and nitrates as well as phosphorus to help build a clearer picture of nutrient levels and pollution.