I've been emailing Thames Water, having watched the BBC2 documentary "Our troubled Rivers" on Sunday evenings. The current situation, (excuse the pun, because it isn't funny), is shown graphically. I got a bland response to the first email, so have now copied the CEO Sarah Bentley, who gets £2m a year plus a £727,000 bonus, into my response. I will be interested to see what she says because I simply cannot see that the Water companies can justify their abysmal record.
Water companies offer customers free water saving devices & discounted water butts, but Thames Water doesn't.
The Guardian states that "Thames Water had 68 complaints per 10,000 connections last year, compared with Wessex Water which had 10 and Anglian Water which had 17". 16 Oct 2022. "Thames Water's creaking infrastructure loses 635m litres in leaks every single day". 24 Aug 2022
The Times said "Thames Water, which has said it will ban hosepipes in the coming weeks, paid shareholders £37.1 million last year and £1.6 billion over the past 12 years". 13 Aug 2022
Thames Water have a real time map showing the dumping of effluent into rivers & seas so they know exactly how much they are doing it. https://www.theguardian.com/
Thames Water & Southern Water are top of a league that shames all water companies who are simply not doing their job effectively. The public is becoming ever more aware of the damage that is being done to the environment generally & rivers & seas specifically. Water companies were privatised in 1989 under the Conservative Thatcher government - 34 years ago. Initially that resulted in unprecedented spending and cleaning of our beaches and rivers to reach record quality levels. Now, sadly, the record is profit over people & planet. https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2076
What can consumers do? Not pay their water bills? Stage demonstrations? Complain? Well yes, but how effective & speedy will that be?
This is a serious & massive issue. It needs political will to force privatised companies to clean up their act. Or it needs current legislation to be enforced through the courts. A NGO like ClientEarth could be very effective.
It's so prevalent & so serious it probably needs all of this to happen at the same time.
Hear hear! Well done taking the time and effort to draw everyone’s attention to this and let’s hope the powers that be take note!
ReplyDeleteI wish I felt that Therese Coffey (Secretary of State for the Environment) really gives a s....All she has done is ask the Water Companies to show her their plans. https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/campaigners-attack-woefully-inadequate-new-efforts-to-tackle-river-sewage-from-therese-coffey-2161217 It just isn't good enough.
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