As Chris Whitty (chief medical officer for England) points out:
'The principal reason for the existence of the sewerage system is to protect public health'!
Therefore, reducing the problem of sewage discharges into water courses must be a 'public health priority'!
The Q. is how do that?
As many of the problems stem from mismanagement & profiteering, its mainly a structural problem regulation alone will not fix (especially given OFWAT's record)... public ownership beckons.
Brixham, a Devon harbour town, has been struck by an illness caused by a microscopic parasite - cryptosporidium - in the water!
About 16,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area have been told by South West Water (SWW) not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.
Not an expert but it does strike me as symptomatic of the state of our water companies and water system. #Water#Sewage#ukpolitics
Heavens, I do hope the Shareholder's profits won't be affected, that's all that matters on Shit Island.
All those lucky Brits who have been given the opportunity to have parasites, they should be grateful to their masters, not angry. For sure, what will getting angry do, it's not like the peasants will change anything! /s
'For years this has been described by water companies and politicians as a problem of “Victorian” sewers.' 'In fact, modern sewers are the problem. Very little of the British sewer system – less than 1 per cent, in some areas – is Victorian, and it is not the Victorian sections that are responsible for the most spills.'
'The £78bn that has been distributed to shareholders since privatisation has been extracted entirely from the public. The £96bn the industry says is needed to fix the system by 2030 will also come from the public.'
British Journalism not even entertaining the notion that the contaminated water could come from a sewage outflow, of the sort our Water Companies are notorious for.
Must be Refugees or Queers or something, innit Brits? /s
United Utilities failed to stop pumping millions of litres of sewage into Lake Windermere for 10 hrs in February & didn't report it to the Environment Agency until 13 hours after it started.
The pumping station is only permitted to discharge untreated sewage into Windermere if it’s overwhelmed by rainfall or snowmelt.
And therein lies the bigger problem: allowing privatised water companies to pump raw sewage into waterways & lakes at all.
This article from April 3rd this year shows the threat to Windermere from raw sewage. At the time this article was written we didn't know about the massive February discharge of raw sewage which has just come to light.
Just in case you'd forgotten that the water utilities have been pumping sewage into our waterways on a regular basis, United Utilities have been found (again) pumping sewage into Windermere.
Not only that, strangely they did exactly the same thing the year before... its almost like they'd prefer to pay dividends & enhance executives' pay than actually fix the problems in their infrastructure.
Meanwhile in the Lake District, more evidence that the sewage discharge(s) already identifies across the country as ruining the UK's beaches & seawaters, are having similar impact inland - Lake Windermere is going green as more semi-treated sewage flows into the lake & feed the algae that turn the water green.
Yet more proof that the only people who gained from water privatisation were the investors - for the rest of us it looks like daylight robbery!