A steady stream of stories about the shockingly poor state of Britain’s waterways has turned into a flood. In March, news that competitors in the Boat Race had been warned to stay out of the Thames due to sewage pollution travelled round the world. That the water industry is dysfunctional, and for years has enriched shareholders and executives at the expense of customers, is broadly recognised by the public. Anglers, surfers and swimmers have joined with environmentalists and the former pop star Feargal Sharkey to demand improvements. Polling last year suggested more than half of voters would take the government’s handling of sewage into account when deciding how to vote.
The latest warnings about the situation from Dame Glenys Stacey, the environment watchdog, are thus not surprising. But her data and analysis still have the power to shock. Under the worst-case assessment from the Office for Environmental Protection, just 21% of England’s rivers and other bodies of water will be in a good ecological state by the target date of 2027 – in contravention of the Environment Act.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In March, news that competitors in the Boat Race had been warned to stay out of the Thames due to sewage pollution travelled round the world.
Under the worst-case assessment from the Office for Environmental Protection, just 21% of England’s rivers and other bodies of water will be in a good ecological state by the target date of 2027 – in contravention of the Environment Act.
Instead, vast profits have been extracted by owners, including the Chinese state, Qatar Investment Authority and private equity firms.
But cuts have limited its capability to investigate, while Ofwat allowed water companies to become heavily financialised, opaque in structure and loaded with debt.
Yet changing weather was predicted by scientists, and the threats to wildlife from global heating make the conservation of ecosystems such as rivers all the more urgent.
While the Liberal Democrats have proposed turning Thames Water into a public benefit company, Labour’s plans for it and the wider industry remain inchoate.
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