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.

Just read it. I think a lot of it’s nonsense: where there’s a will, there’s a way to unpick things and the mess the water companies are now in justifies that.

I got that as well @Darker no appetite for it it seems.

I've had the message too. I cannot see any government ready to unpick the mess. But worth remembering it has taken some rail companies into public ownership so it could be done bit by bit.

True

“Government recognises the strength of public concern about the performance of water companies, “
Lying shits. Liars and thieves.

I do find it funny that they mention how expensive the legal process would be - as if it will be cheaper to poison the country and environment and do all the clear up instead. Someone is still making profit from this or it is being used as leverage for something else with the companies/other countries that are bleeding us dry.

It is interesting that nationalization is not seen as the answer by the government. I would be interested in seeing comparisons between Scottish Water vs the private water companies. Especially like-for-like areas for population density, age of system and rainfall. It would also be interesting to compare investments in infrastructure and maintenance. Scottish Water are not perfect, and have a lot of spill issues too, but the comparison of private vs public owned.
As someone who briefly worked adjacent to the water companies, it is scary that Ofwat fund large programmes to investigate options to upgrade the systems and yet they remain under invested in. In some cases the infrastructure is suitable in terms of volume/capacity but the flow of sewage isn't managed across the system to manage the flow into the treatment plants. In others it is still Victorian infrastructure with some sensors chucked in and not up to the job. It's archaic and horrific.
It's not just the water companies either - industrial farming run off is also polluting water ways. https://riveractionuk.com/campaign/rescue-the-river-wye/#:~:text=The%20main%20culprit%20is%20nutrient,disrupting%20the%20river's%20entire%20ecosystem. Both need to be tackled urgently.

It just feels like the ‘private’ companies are being funded by the taxpayer through the indirect mechanism of increasing utility bills to cover shortfalls.
Truly private companies would just go bust with all the fines and the rest of it.

That’s been the business model of privatization since its inception. Public debt, private profit.

just watched this. Absolutely terrifying, I wish there had been more of a stink about it on sm and in the news it might force more action

Sat 25th April is upcoming https://www.soswhitstable.com/
Suggest getting the train as parking might be tricky with big turnouts expected.

Ooh just came across this in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/08/reader-qa-post-your-questions-about-water-pollution-for-sandra-laville

“Companies are arguably already in many cases in breach of their licence conditions on sewage pollution, and in some cases on water supply, given, for example, the multiple supply outages by South East Water in Kent and Sussex. Ewen McGaughey, a professor of law at Kings College London argues the special administration system can be used to renationalise water companies at near zero cost to the public.”

But the politicians here are almost as crooked as they are in America. Not quite, as a mere amateur country, but nearly.

I enjoyed Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall on R4 this afternoon advocating for the Pike to be on a currency note. Made a proper dig at the govt for not looking after our waterways.

We also heard this and thought a small line about declining or increasing numbers for animals on the notes would be interesting.

So so sad.

And what makes it worse is that it is so preventable

www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-15731847/UK-no-beaches-swimming-spring-revealed.html

Criminal.

liking this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e8lx5d423o

Thanks for sharing

Looks like BBC Radio 4 is covering this story in ‘rinsed’. Starting on Monday 1.45. Omnibus on Saturday.