Water companies face unlimited fines for dumping sewage – but too late?
Rivers of Sh*t: Boris Johnson couldn’t be bothered to think about the details of his Brexit, so the UK suffered shortages of materials including those used to clean sewage. So partially-cleaned and harmful crap started going directly into our rivers, with government approval. And now? Who knows why it’s happening – probably because it’s profitable.
It’s totally underwhelming – and looks like an attempt by the Tory government to dodge blame.
Apparently ministers want to lift a cap of £250,000 on penalties for firms that release sewage into rivers and the sea – and make the fine unlimited.
But questions are being asked about Environment Secretary Therese Coffey:
Who is paying for the pathetic reduction of 10,000 sewage spills a year to 290,000 trumpeted by Therese Coffey? Surely it is water companies? No, it's you – your bills will go up – because nothing must be allowed to interfere with their profits.
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) April 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/Greekboy8/status/1642054527938330624
I'll offer another perspective, @10DowningStreet needs to remove the SoS from office before anymore damage is done. But will they? https://t.co/99q8b8auu1
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) March 31, 2023
The Environment Agency has recorded 301,081 sewage spills in 2022 – down from 2021, but this is believed to be due to drier weather rather than the actions of water firms.
According to Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, Coffey’s “plans to solve this crisis would allow sewage dumping to happen for decades to come, poisoning more animals and destroying precious chalk streams”.
And concerns have been raised that people may not realise just how harmful these sewage dumps are.
Fortunately we have former pop star and now environmental campaign Feargal Sharkey to point out the worst to us.
Brace yourself because here comes a selection of his tweets on the subject, with links to full stories:
"London’s ‘dying river’ leaves locals vomiting at the stench and walking by human faeces."
And having walked every single mile of every single river within the M25 I can confirmed 100% that this is frequently the case. 😡😡😡https://t.co/EAAeuGcDPT
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 2, 2023
"Unparalleled negligence".
And it is unparalleled negligence, by everyone involved, @10DowningStreet, @DefraGovUK, @Ofwat, @EnvAgency and the water industry.https://t.co/FLuXJgUMJL
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 2, 2023
"Shrewsbury: How sewage destroyed an iconic River Severn spot with anglers catching ‘more tampons than fish’."
Dear God!https://t.co/vq5aZcuzQa
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 3, 2023
"Alarm as regional levels of sewage pollution among worst in England and Wales
Seas, rivers and waterways in Ceredigion and Gwynedd endured some of the highest levels of sewage pollution in England and Wales last year".https://t.co/oemedHCEw9
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 3, 2023
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics".
3 "realtime" sewage dumping maps with 3 different answers and all using the same data.
On Fri @sascampaigns' map showed 17 sewage dumps going on in Cornwall, local water company @SouthWestWater 5 and @Defra's 0. 🤔https://t.co/LgBh1kna5n
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) March 26, 2023
Oh, and just for good measure, here’s Prem Sikka:
Water companies in England are ‘wilfully misleading’ the public over sewage claims.
All rivers are polluted with sewage.
Privatisation has given us pollution, high prices, little investment. Companies make bigger profits, execs collect bigger paypackets.https://t.co/pz4il3uaBc
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) April 3, 2023
Oh yes, and Keir Starmer has made noises about water pollution, as you’ll see from the tweet below.
But look at the comment on it. Previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would have done much more. Starmer is just paying lip-service to the idea.
Jeremy Corbyn would have brought water back into public ownership.
Starmer "pledged" to do that. He lied.
Former Labour MP Angela "funny tinge" Smith is a lobbyist for privatised water companies. She stood against Labour at the 2019 GE. Starmer let her back into the party. https://t.co/HboKxIbnWS
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) April 1, 2023
Feargal reckons that, even with its faults, Labour is better for our waterways than the Tories:
"Labour unveils plan to end sewage dumping as Keir Starmer accuses Government of turning rivers into ‘sewer’".
This is not a party political broadcast but @UKLabour has a much better plan right now that that act of desperation gov have pumping out.https://t.co/IAy0zs7hZe
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) April 2, 2023
Starmer isn’t in power at the moment so he can’t do anything. Right-wing factionalists – like him – in the Labour Party sabotaged Mr Corbyn’s bid to form a government.
So he’s a liability in the fight against waterway pollution.
And in the meantime, nothing is being done to stop these polluting companies.
And the rivers and seas of the UK are absolutely full of poison.
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These water companies won’t care how large the fines are, as Jo Maugham tweeted, “It’s the customer that pays”. These fines should come out of their profits and not be allowed to pass the cost of these fines onto the customer. I’m sure the tories would never allow this kind of thing though.
Of all of Thatcher’s privatisations Water was the worst, or was it the railways? or was ir gas,or electricity? or the Post Office, or all or any one of them? Together they have crashed the UK, perhaps to the point of no return. Why, then, is this short sighted deadly incompetent woman still lionised by the tories? It just doesn’t make sense. How right Nye Bevan was when he said that ‘the commanding heights of the British economy’ should be under the control of he government. I would include the Banks in that, too.
Fascist tories from the boy leaders to the fascist tory foot soldiers are all responsible for destroying our rivers and seas around UK’s coast. DEFRA is useless because the fascist tories sacked so many staff that now there are just a handful available to monitor or rather not monitor what is happening in our rivers.
The privatised water companies are also criminally accountable so all the fascist tory ministers and private water companies should be charged with deliberately endangering our health! I predict cholera and typhoid will return and the fascist tories will claim ‘not our problem guv!’
Despicable fascist tories because their sole concern is money and more money – profits must not be reduced and private water companies must be protected. Keep on discharging sewage into our rivers and seas boys because no one will be charged and arrested!