Joe Lycett Tackles The UK’s Sewage Crisis | Joe Lycett Vs Sewage | Channel 4

[@NickyRyan-y3e]

Thank you so much Joe for getting involved and trying to help with this awful situation. I am a keen sea swimmer, however, last year I became ill after swimming with throat infections ,ear infections and feeling unwell .It’s absolutely outrageous what these companies are doing

[@nondisclosure3920]

You should sue for personal injury, might make them think twice if hit's them in the wallet. Hope you're feeling better now, must have been gross to realise it was cos of sewage, sorry you went through that ❤

[@TheJudiBambiPurrsParadox]

@@nondisclosure3920 Might also get Joe Lycett to team up with him if he does sue! Press won't be able to ignore the issue with a lawsuit AND Joe Lycett on their heels!

[@brigrills]

It's basically industrial fly tipping, we (the consumer) pay the water company to take the waste away & dispose of it properly, they just pour it into the sea/river. It's no different to dumping household waste in country lanes/beauty spots. They should be fined repeatedly & have the dividends cancelled.

[@fatwalletboy2]

Absolutely........councils have teams that rifle through fky tips for evidence of where it might have come from and that individual might get fined.....these water clmpsnirs actually have a warchest fund to just pay the fines.....thecfines we are paying for. They dont affect bonuses or dividends...... i mean what the actual fike.......

[@06howea1]

Literally.

[@seanfaherty]

Well the Conservatives said that not only do the companies get to keep the money they were paid and YOU get to pay for the clean up. That’s 13 years of Conservative rule.

[@AdamDaviesSussex]

@@seanfaherty They also allowed self-monitoring in the first place.

[@seanfaherty]

good point @@AdamDaviesSussex

[@RankinMsP]

"I'm not spilling 💩 everywhere. Who fo you think I am, GB News?" 😂😂😂 Quality Genius

[@vmwindustries]

Fix your country, before trying to save the world.

[@jimbomorton3074]

A problem that nobody knows about or ignores is the fact that in the uk for some reason storm water is not kept separate from sewage. So every time we get lots of rain the sewage treatment plants get overloaded, so the problem will not be solved until storm water is kept separate. Even third world countries have separate systems

[@Hurc7495]

thats what 30+ years of maximising shareholder value looks like!

[@tmoosy]

as someone in the industry, I can say this is being fixed now... but it should've been done a long time ago

[@fikitoification]

Sounds like a bit of an excuse to me as well. Every time it stars spitting Thames River turns brown.

[@AdamDaviesSussex]

Further to that; every time it rains, they use the excuse as a reason to dump more sewage than should be possible to offset the rainfall. The system is broken. And they're allowed to mark their own homework. Capitalism working as intended ¬_¬

[@AndrewHalliwell]

Isn't it odd that we didnt have this issue until the tories got in this time. Storm water didn't cause billions of tons of raw sewage to leak into the rivers back in the 80s. We had some nasty storms then, too. Or the 90s. Or the 2000s. Why is it only happening now. Stop making excuses, they don't give a flying fuck about the consumers, only their shareholders. They could've stopped this years ago but the chemicals used in the treatment plants are just oh so expensive... Oh the pain in their wallets, having to spend money on something rather than just stop doing it entirely.

[@badabingbadaboomboom]

Thank you so much Joe - this is exactly what we need. I will share this as much as I can. We are stronger together 😃

[@bogdanmchugh6747]

Props to Ron Weasley's dad for tackling this issue 💯

[@iamhungry4000]

That is awesome XD

[@LornaShoreBabe]

Thank you for bringing light to this issue. I had no idea this was happening!! South west water emailed!!

[@VanceRefrigeration]

Problem solved. Lorna’s sent an email

[@petergilbert7106]

Where is the link Channel 4? Surely you need to make this as easy as possible for people to complain to their water companies?

[@graceydez6199]

C4 social media people have had days to fix this and nothing? Put a link in and take it seriously C4.

[@AdamDaviesSussex]

Southwest water was recently fined £2.15m. Their profits were ~£130m. I'd assume they take fines into account and note is an operating cost at this point. They're allowed to essentially mark their own homework. Why would they care? Email sent.

[@TREVONBACH]

To the badass of badassery. . . THANK YOU. You are doing more for awareness around the world than most. If I ever had the opportunity to meet, I'd simply offer a hug and a gift of thank you in person. BUT I live across the pond and fear flying, so you have no worry. Thank you for being a worldwide hero.

[@petersharp90]

I don't see how the water companies can call these discharges 'spills'. The word 'spill' implies an accident.

[@naturalnaiad]

You're really a HERO joe. We love you.

[@malcolm8564]

If a company has broken the law, especially in an large scale organised frequent manner surely POCA the proceeds of crime act would apply and profits should be recovered.

[@BlackRat-vw9jv]

Not really, we just fine the company and let them get on with it.

[@BooksAndShitButNotLiterally]

Erm, I'm pretty sure the Tories made it perfectly legal.

[@fleshboundtobone]

You're under the misapprehension that the law applies to these people

[@simplykatebush]

They do get fined but the water companies and seeing as we’re talking about Bognor -especially southern water, just factor those fines in when they adjust our water bills

[@HurricaneOK1]

Wait how aren't there laws to stop water companies from dumping raw sewage into your sea? In New Zealand we have laws, and quite strict enforcement of them, for instances where anyone (including Government departments like councils) negligently discharge sewage. You should try having some laws.

[@capmodesty]

There were, but they weren't retained because they were EU laws and the Conservatives don't give a crap

[@smelge]

Well, it's perfectly legal if the tories who are in power have shares in the water company. They'll even change the law to get rid of the grey areas and defund the agencies that are supposed to monitor and enforce it. Difficult to do that when they only have 5 members of staff to cover the whole country. But it's not corruption. It's only corruption if someone other than a tory does it.

[@capmodesty]

We did have laws but of course they were chucked out when we left the EU with reassurance nothing would change, never trust anything a Conservative says

[@Meganjs360]

There are I believe. Since 2007, Southern Water has been fined roughly £97,625,200. In 2020 they were charged with 51 offences.

[@smelge]

@@Meganjs360 "charged" in this case meaning that it is a) cheaper to pay fines than fix things, and b) they just raised prices so the customer covered the fines. At no point do any of these fines actually impact the earnings of the people in charge or their shareholders.

[@simplykatebush]

The Financial Times published an article last year on how Southern Water had been sold off to new private investors ( Australians) who’ve borrowed a vast sum against the asset, raised bills as a consequence and to keep shareholders happy and dividends high. Nothing left for investing in updating the system. The only solution is to use legislation to forcibly retrieve and nationalise our utilities. Not while Tories are in though…we all know that privatising our essential services will never have a good outcome for the populace, only for the few. There needs to be jail sentences for this level of environmental disaster. Starting with the CEOs ….

[@Ribeirasacra]

It is not only in the UK. The latest over spill here in Spain is in Benidorm. It is also said to be a blue flag beach too.

[@philiporeillycork]

The only difference is that there are massive fines in the EU for both companies doing this and governments not enforcing minimum standards. It's hardly a coincidence that there is a massive increase in sewage dumping since 2016 in the UK.

[@solophiesoterica]

@channel4 you know if you check your bill, the water company charges you both an equal amount for water delivery as it does for drainage. I argued this with the water companies once saying “I drank some of that” anyway point being…we need a class action law suit against the water companies to reclaim 50% of our water bills since 2016, since the premis and contract agreement was that they dealt with the water waste, cleaned it up, and repurposed it.

[@matt69nice]

How are they supposed to pay back 50% of their revenue for 8 years? The money's already been paid out to shareholders!

[@peterwhitear7716]

they need to stop putting up water bills and get shareholders to pay ( not us )

[@reslllence]

unfortunately that wont work, if they cant make money they wont run the companies so unless you nationalise there has to be a financial incentive

[@matt69nice]

That's not how companies work, and some of that is coming out of the pensions of millions of people, including you, because pension funds are massive shareholders. You'll be paying for it one way or another.

[@yamadakenji4143]

I can remember in the 1980s one of the news programs on the box asked one night "Is Britain the Dirty Man of Europe?". And that was "just" about occasional dumping stuff at sea (industrial waste, not human feces)

[@lynmason3979]

Thank you for making this programme on the danger of raw sewage going into our rivers & sea. I remember when these companies where past on to these companies & the where sold, at the time we were tolt that money needs spending in the sewerag THAT IS WHY THEY WERE GOING TO BE PRIVATISED THIS WAS IN 1989. MARGARET THATCHER SAID THE PRIVATIZATION WILL ENABLE TO SPEND MONEY ON MODERNISING THE OLD SEWRIDGE WORK. Perhaps planing for new homes should STOP BECAUSE THERE IS NO PLACES FOR THE SEWAGE TO GO ONLY TO THE SEA, THE COUNCIL NEED TO BE AWARE OF THERE IS NO ROOM IN THE SYSTEM TO TAKE THE POO & THE REST OF THE WATER. JOE I do hope you read this. 😅

[@walkwithmeASMR]

Me and my children were swimming at a reallt lovely nature spot with many others families and bristol water must have released sewage illegally (not allowed to release in warm sunny weather. Only heavy rain days) because we got norovirus about 12 hours later. It was horrible and has put me off going again.

[@johnbird7357]

2024 and just under 500 people in my village in south Lincolnshire have no mains drainage or a gas supply so we have a kerosebe boiler for the hot water and central heating. We all have water treatment plants, cess tanks or cess pits. Less than 10 miles away in west Norfolk, where we used to live, the whole village had mains drainage. That's progress on the east coast for you.

[@joshtherahrah]

I hope Joe keeps up with this campaign. Water and sewage bills are rising so the water companies should make fucking sure they are tackling this problem.

[@kevlacy5306]

So where is the environment agency? They should be prosecuting these firms.

[@soup4242]

love joe in all ur endevours

[@DanielSergeant4]

I love wild swimming in summer, one of my favourite pastimes. But in recent years it's left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Absolutely furious with these water companies. Thank you for Joe!!!

[@adamhewton6411]

Luckily you don’t really get spills in summer

[@ballis2000]

They just released raw sewage on Weymouth beach and then closed beach for beach works very funny they don't want ppl to see whilst they rake it in 🤔🤫

[@Choc-Ice]

As much as I commend you for doing that, the laws aren’t there to stop these greedy companies. Hence, doesn’t matter what us peasants say, it could be a million e-mails. They won’t stop unless severe punishments are put in place for their misdeeds and profiteering. 😢

[@tewrgh]

Don't wish to sound negative, but is the plan that the CEOs will read all these emails, and feel such a sense of shame that they stop paying out dividends and vast executive salaries?

[@matt69nice]

An easy way to get this sorted is to fine the companies a significant portion of their turnover, and then offer grants which they have to apply for in order to build specific infrastructure. The free market has failed and the British people need to wake up to this fact. The only long-term solution is to bring essential universal services back into public ownership.

[@georgedawson235]

Well done Joe 👏 Hope it's not too late

[@grime_garage]

This documentary had everything in it, the comedy was funny and adding known TV faces was good too

[@edwatts3289]

0:3w - “how much sh..Sewage is being pumped”😂

[@Volfmech]

Wondering if people even recall that almost 300 Conservative MPs voted to allow sewage dumping into rivers for another 15 or so years last year. Not just water companies people should be going after.

[@Yayo11111]

Whys this still not getting enough traction is unreal

[@adamhewton6411]

If water companies didn’t spill to environment they would back up the network and flood peoples houses. What would you prefer?

[@SvenSkottke]

@@adamhewton6411 Lol, a system that works. Try imagining alternatives to problems.

[@geekygamerchannel2171]

He’s found the Tories, Reform, Britain First, UKIP and every Gbeebies News viewer all in the same area

[@sasjasmin]

Way to go Joe! :D

[@06howea1]

Thank you Joe Lycett.

[@Rich..]

The issue is the british public dont do anything about it, other than express their outrage on the comments section (which is ironically, exactly what I doing right now) May I also add a thanks to Joe for continuing to stand up to these big corporations. If only more people, who are in a similar situation to Joe, used their voice in the same way.

[@Rich..]

@@elyrexo Great question and that is the exact problem, Nobody knows what to do hahaha. We could do what the French do and protest. But im not sure if that does any good either.

[@Harvester236]

@@elyrexo General strike. Forget about political leanings, just unite against the common enemy and do anything to stop them ruining our environment. The French do it all the time and it works.

[@matt69nice]

@@elyrexoI suggest not voting Tory, for starters.

[@3chords490]

Exactly , if this was France there would have been up turned cars on fire and riots in the streets. We are too tolerant

[@getin3949]

Good for you Joe, great job.

[@chrisb3523]

Joe Lycett you legend ❤ What a hero 🥇

[@bettyswallocks6411]

4:54 What, no custurd?

[@peterwhitear7716]

lets all stop paying are bills until they correct what they have done

[@dissonantdreams]

I thought we were doing that with the energy bills a while back, except no-one actually did it…

[@liamhamer-mathew2751]

Yes I agree, I’m gonna stop paying my bills

[@xTerminatorAndy]

I love the gratuitous dig at gb news

[@JakeWoolmer]

Legend! 🙏🏼❤️

[@HaloFlemz86]

Way to go Joe!! 🎉

[@TheSussexpillbox]

Well, Brexit and "what about the small boat people" type folk are a good reason.

[@NannyRose2289]

You have to get on to the REGULATOR and get them to ban the dividends. Thames Water want tax payers money to get them out of the shit so they can do the repair work and invest in the infrastructure (all stuff that as a company you are supposed to do with your profits), but they gave all their profits away in dividends rather than invest in the company. They have now ased for help from the tax payers and they are insisting that they still be able to pay dividends whilst they receive this bail out! Seriously, you couldn't make this greedy, corrupt shit up! Thames Water is not fit for purpose and neither is the regulator!

[@sgsuper1150]

Overcharging sewage companies get away with it. How is it possible to return 95% of the drinking water? 15% evaporation.

[@tom4412]

Wouldn’t the landlord be lumbered with the water bill after the tenants leave?

[@TheJudiBambiPurrsParadox]

*Why, oh why can't you come across the pond and do this in/to America? Please come humiliate our big money BS agencies too!*

[@TrophyGuide101]

Please don't ask for my dividends to stop.

[@gopro2804]

It is disgusting. Shameful.

[@alexanderromanov737]

Joe is my favourite British campaigner. BUT Did you see him getting in his minibus at the end of the shitspill scene IN HIS GOPNIK UNIFORM? Joe, never again

[@eelm2079]

like someone's doing it just wish was bit more of a powerful voice/personality

[@david103857]

Genius!

[@jasonhare8540]

Y'all it's a damn good thing Joe went into comedy . If he had chosen a life of crime he would be a diabolical fiend 🤣

[@TomWhi]

Joe ❤

[@TonyHavenMusic]

Joe is morphing into an Ellen and Paul O’Grady love child

[@RustyNail-gv2by]

They'll get fined and guess who will cover that cost? That's right, US.

[@alegomanYTPs]

They raise the prices of food in hopes that we wont buy it and stop sh*tting so they can sort this out I believe lmao

[@Hungrykittynomnom]

Ahahah I loved that GB news dig😂😂😂 hating that shit atm.

[@_permanence]

Great work. But as soon as they stop paying dividends their investors will withdraw all of their money….

[@oliverbingham2848]

I think they will need to nationalise

[@lozfitz]

drives away in a diesel transit van! Oh the irony!!

[@eddjordan2399]

well done Joe. why are tv shows having todo this there are governing body's who should be in control of this for us as we pay there wage, but obviously they couldn't give a shit. or totally could in fact thats all they have been doing supplying crap.

[@stormbroke]

What if everyone refused to pay their water providers?

[@adamhewton6411]

Water companies get their money from OFWAT not directly for peoples bills.

[@stephenjames674]

Hopefully it works Joe, however the water companies would love to fix the problem and invest in relevant solutions, but Ofwat and successive governments haven’t wanted them to spend the vast sums required. Don’t you wonder where the money will come from or do you think it will magically appear? In the end someone has to pay and it will either be via taxes and ultimately us (but this won’t happen) or via the economic regulation of the water and sewerage companies and therefore customer bills and therefore us, which will happen. Again there is no magic to fix the problem tomorrow and it will take decades to fix decades of under investment and your water bills will correspondingly increase for decades. I agree it needs to happen, but just like you needing to post videos and film for TV to make money to survive, the water companies need to make money to survive as well.

[@parametr]

That's cute. Asking water companies to please stop sharing dividends. The water companies with a monopoly on an essential resource. It's the government's job to stop this and make them pay. Or some crazy dude's job to find out where the bosses approving these dividends live.

[@MrSatnavatron]

The issue stands , with global warming , we will see massive algae blooms choke our rivers and turn water to sludge , at least this way some profits can be made along the route

[@jedijake1734]

Joe for PM...

[@C_harlie_J]

brilliant

[@mickeydodds1]

It don't half pen and ink.

[@IDontModWTFz]

Another way is spam bots.

[@gazza363]

Did the Brexit laws change around cleaner beaches?

[@ancientmariner7372]

It’s all very Medieval this sewage problem.

[@dothecapback]

yessss!

[@cathiepixie]

What a shitshow! Thanks for using your skills, power & comedy for the common good! :-)

[@jeonlyxoxo]

I refuse to swim in any UK water, as I don’t like swimming in poo. I don’t mind to paying thousands to swim in crystal clear water. ABROAD somewhere

[@nofunclub]

Don't stop hunting bad 'guys' Who's next?

[@latchmere100]

Lycette jumping on the band wagon. This issue has been going on for years.

[@semfronken6176]

Another 14 years of the Tories and we'll all be drowning shit.

[@Aloh-od3ef]

Almost 600.000 people moved to the UK, last year alone! Guess what… They ALL need to use the toilet, multiple times per day…. And you wonder why the sewers are overflowing 🤦‍♂️😂

[@hotelmario510]

What utter tosh. A modern sewage system that can't handle a little bit of immigration is unfit for purpose.

[@oliverbingham2848]

Lack of investment and planning

[@URFUTUREUK]

The Uk smells lik crap atm

[@philtoyarse6487]

Thing to make em listen me babber is money 💰 stop paying they turn tap off

[@mjribes]

Don't guys do a "sewage stunt" on a daily basis?

[@peterlarkin762]

Thanks for sheding some shite on this pissue.

[@Annie-ex3ge]

I'd like to know how many Tories are in possession of water company stocks.

[@Mrgingerdread1]

Brill

[@NDKY67]

Yes, bloody brilliant 💩💩💩💩💩

[@MichaelGill-h3d]

What a rotten core smell. 😮

[@JensRoland]

What a shitshow

[@graceomalley4]

Legislation is what is needed. Replace EU laws with UK laws and enforce the law. Simple as that.

[@XAVR_]

The removal of EU legislation is exactly the thing that has allowed the government to dump even more shit into the ocean than they were before 2018 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@ShaneGilliboys]

How is this addressing or fixing the problem? It has done NOTHING apart from Generate JOE fame... Anyone commenting "omg well done joe" please go educate yourselves and stop being sheep to which ever celeb you like posts a video

[@iamhungry4000]

Sorry, but where did you think it went? Didn't you go to school? Just so you know, the reason it gets pumped to the sea is because it's the lowest water level, leaving the clean water that rains and becomes lakes, rivers, and reservoirs clean and safe for consumption. The fact that you had to get "bullied for dark skin" Qatar Lineker involved shows what a weak issue this is, as well as the press's obsession with leftist politics. You also say come up with a better solution. What is yours? What is the lady's at the beginning? It's all fantastic talking about people power until you realise the people don't have a solution to what they're making an issue of, so really what are you doing except giving people a hard time because nobody, me you or them, have any better solutions? I bet you're best mates with Greta Thunberg. Do better next time.

[@keithwilkins1437]

One of the reasons so much immigration should have been stopped is that the early twentieth century infrastructure cannot cope with the increase , whether its sewage , housing ,traffic congestion , prisons etc .Still ,that does not matter ,as long out M.Ps self esteem is not dented .

[@EdwardOberon]

"Due to unfettered corruption, underfunding of services and privatisation all orchestrated by greedy politicians, their donors and corporations, you can't come here". 👈 That's what you sound like... Who knows, Maybe putting a stop to corruption and the cutting of our essential services is more fruitful than blaming immigrants.

[@XAVR_]

Nonsense

[@colinmelling6369]

GB news comment was pathetic and and unnecessary. Just as much as s*^t going into our waters .

[@FloatingCroc]

Don’t know why he’s moaning, he often drops his anchor in poo bay

[@Lifeslittleshorts]

@lifeslittleshorts