Dirty Business- The Water Companies are profiteering lying bastards

[Ihatetomatoes]

Dirty Business

Just watched it.

Raw sewage onto our beaches and into rivers.

A child died. That poor child, an awful death.
Children and adults ill.
Suicide
Lies
Profits
Misrepresentation of facts.
Overpaid executives.

Throughly disgusting. Executives that nake these decisions should be prosecuted. Shameful. How do they live with themselves profiteering like that.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dirty-business

Episode 1

"In an idyllic Oxfordshire hamlet, the fish in the river keep dying. Why? David Thewlis and Jason Watkins lead this shocking real-life drama of victims, whistleblowers and England’s water companies."

Episode 2

An 8 year old girl dies after a trip to the seaside.

I've not watched this yet.

But almost certainly yanbu.

Awful 😞

It's horrifying. Very sad. This needs to be told though.

The way people in power take decisions that mean more money but damage to the environment and to people is appalling.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/18/the-death-of-heather-preen-how-eight-year-old-lost-her-life-amid-uk-sewage-crisis

Just read this article after tonight’s episode about poor Heather who died from E.coli poisoning, because of raw sewage being pumped into the sea. Absolutely awful.

It made my blood boil, shame on the water company and the Environmental Agency.Those poor people.

Such a huge scandal. I really hope the campaign gains more traction now after this programme.

YANBU OP.

It makes my blood boil how water companies get away with dumping 💩 that poor child died and no one has been held accountable.

Thieving bastards. And don’t get me started on the PE companies!

It is shameful! I hope this spurs a Mr Bates moment.
Those fat cat execs who profiteer should hang their heads in shame!

They won't though. Devoid of humanity.

Her father committed suicide as well. That poor family have been through so much. The bosses at the water companies should be more accountable. However, it appears it's all about profits.

They must be. Money is more important to some than accountability it appears.

It's a national disgrace. Millions and millions of gallons of sewage pumped into our waterways every day. This mostly due to years of systematic under investment in order that shareholders can receive greater dividends.

I do think this is a failure of the regulators. After privatisation these companies were supposed to be putting money by for infrastructure upgrades, but instead they paid that money out in profits. Then borrowed more to ensure they could pay more dividends. These water companies are now saddled with vast debts. Who was supposed to be responsible for making sure they were putting money by?

Watched it all last night completely aghast. Scandalous doesnt even cover it

I haven't watched yet but will.

I know a couple of years ago (I think) at Henley Royal Regatta the athletes were told not to jump in, touch the water or throw their cox in.
Think it was high levels of e-coli.
They were meant to shower immediately and I think there were additional cleansing stations (maybe not called that) but lots of signs in athlete tent and a lot of crews were ill.

Shameful. Thames Water's behaviour is criminal.

Putting responsibility for our water into the hands of foreign investors and failing to properly regulate it was absolutely unforgivable. I honestly don’t know how this shit show (literally) can be put right.

This is the Thatcher legacy - utilities privatised so that the profit motive is bolted on to what is basically a service (not that Thatcher even understood that word) - shareholders to be remunerated, bosses to be paid massive uncontrolled salaries and bonuses, lots of money spent on window dressing and PR.

I have no idea how we crawl back out of this. Public services are simply wrecked.

It's not just that they borrowed money. They borrowed money from the companies that owned the water companies as an accounting trick to ensure the water companies cannot be brought back into public ownership without a massive cost.

So company A owns water company W. A loans W billions. W is then obliged to pay A back even if it's taken back into public ownership. So if it's taken back into public ownership the taxpayers then owe that money

Immoral

Even if Labour manage to get them back into public ownership at some point there will be a change of government who will them just sell them off again.

Selling state assets to their mates is the reason the Tories and Reform exist. To enrich themselves at the cost of you and me

Particularly bitter this morning as I’ve just got a bill for £470 from Thames bastard water. Fuckers

Isn't there some kind of campaign where people are refusing to pay a particular element of their water bills? On the basis that we're not receiving the service being billed for. We should all join in, it might make them take action if we hit them in the profits.

I hope it spurs a bit more action than the PO scandal did.

Hundreds of the Postmasters haven’t been properly compensated yet, and compensation isn’t anywhere near what most of them lost.

Nobody from the PO has been held to account. Paula Vennels (and others on the board) has been allowed to retire and not return any of the bonuses she made during the period.

Fujitsu made lots of promises to contribute but, to date, aren’t even making provisions in their accounts for money they think they’ll have to pay out (which suggests, to me, that they think they’ll get away without paying anything), AND are still being awarded Govt contracts!

So what’s really changed? God forbid the water companies are put under that level of redress 🙄

I've not heard of that.

My water keeps going up and I hear this and think it's appalling. More should be done to encourage water companies to clean up their acts - take fines from profits - shouldn't be passed onto customers. I personally don't think provision of water and sewage treatment should make a profit, just break even.