Due to the extraordinarily low water levels during the drought of summer 2018, the old dam of the reservoir, which is normally submerged, could be seen. The blue floating device in the background is the temporary abstraction point used during the drought. A makeshift pipe connects it to a pump on the modern dam
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North Ceredigion is supplied with drinking water through the water works at Bont-goch
SN6886, which are fed with raw water from the Llyn Llygad Rheidol
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Llyn Llygad Rheidol is a natural lake in a glacial hollow on the north face of Pumlumon Fawr which has been dammed to increase capacity. Aberystwyth Town Council, then responsible for water supply to the town, built a 16-mile pipeline to transport untreated water from Llyn Llygad Rheidol directly to Aberystwyth in the 1870s.
The separate Aberystwyth Rural District Council, serving the villages of north Ceredigion, took a water supply from the Afon Leri, regulated by their dam at Llyn Craig-y-pistyll. They also built the treatment works at Bont-goch in 1939.
The two local authorities had begun to make joint plans when the responsibility for the water supply was transferred to the new Cardiganshire Water Board in 1962. In 1967, the water board built a new pipeline connecting the two reservoirs, siphoned around the base of the Nant-y-moch hydroelectric reservoir, which had been built between 1957 and 1961. This new pipeline replaced the old direct one to Aberystwyth to allow processing of all drinking water at Bont-goch.
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The water from the two small reservoirs is generally sufficient to supply the needs of north Ceredigion. Dŵr Cymru, the publicly owned water company now in charge of water supply to the area, has a drought plan which establishes that the supply would be topped up by transfers from Nant-y-moch directly into the pipeline linking the two drinking water reservoirs using a temporary installation during a severe drought
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