People in England, have you noticed that your water pressure has decreased over time, or even recently? It’s weird right?
There’s a reason for this: it costs too much for our privatised regional water corporations to fix leaks, so by lowering the water pressure, less water is forced out of leaks and less water is lost. :akko_angry:
Rather than fixing the creaking infrastructure we have, the water companies would rather make our water supply worse to metaphorically paper over the literal cracks.
@yassie_j Me:
"huh I wonder why I have never had this problem" checks where water from my home and uni city comes from both public
"How tf did a large city in the UK out neo liberal a tiny random uni town in the US"
@garden the UK used to have regional water boards that were owned by the Government. Thatcher privatised this in the 1980s (of course), and the boards were broken up into regional water corporations, now owned by pension funds and investment banks, etc. These corporations are supposed to be regulated by the Office for Water (Ofwat). However, Ofwat has suffered regulatory capture, and so does not do a great job of regulating the water corporations.
And you think, how does this work out in practice? Well, the water companies discharge raw sewage into rivers, lakes, and beaches – which has increased since Brexit because the UK no longer has to follow EU guidelines on water cleanliness!!!! – and they do not invest in infrastructure at all.
In fact, because the Victorians over-engineered the sewage system in the UK, it is only now that we are facing problems with water distribution.
The severe lack of investment is because the water corporations use their immense capital (y’know, an entire national water grid) as collateral and take out debt. Did they use the debt for capital expenditure at least? Nope. They used the debt as “profit” and paid out billions to shareholders and executives.
The UK’s largest supplier Thames (which serves London and Southeast) is on the brink of going insolvent, and now the Government might have to nationalise it again. The investors in this company are going fucking insane because they want their stupid earnings to be guaranteed. It’s an investment, so you should shut the fuck up and lose your money.
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