Clean water campaigners give MPs terrifying warning about river pollution

Clean water campaigners warned MPs on the environmental audit committee that someone is going to die from swimming in English rivers and seas thanks to the level of E. coli from water pollution
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[@kellymckeever.6]

The water companies responsible should be taken to court for endangering the public's health and safety

[@alice1374]

They won't Profits is the reason. Remove the money from the water system and maybe, just maybe then justice will be served.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

What are people paying for exactly if even water from the tap can't be trusted? Poisons in the rivers and seas a danger to people and animals. A biggish company near to me got fined. Been going on for years putting waste in a stream. Smelt disgusting years ago. Wildlife was there as well. Too many companies cutting corners and dumping toxic stuff just to keep share holders happy.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

​@@alice1374A large food company in my area got fined. Dumping waste in a nearby stream. Not many do and it probably takes ages. They did in the end in Wales.

[@paulwilson2651]

The Tories have let this happen they too should be held responsible both politically and legally.

[@mikeclifford7740]

The courts and the government will protect them

[@jeffadamson55adamson52]

In 1989 Thames water debt was £0. It is now £15 billion,and shareholders are getting an increase because profits have gone up because bills have up ! Over 90% of these shareholders are foreign,why should they care about our waters. Criminal .

[@petyrkowalski9887]

All the debt has gone to fat cat execs and shareholders for running a monopoly utility. Its beyond disgusting.

[@timsturbo4870]

Thames Water sold to CIC & McQuarie or Chinese government, 2016 National Grid sold to CIC & McQuarie after Teresa May green lighted sale of 82’000 miles of gas pipeline to your houses and businesses.

[@joanneward6746]

So it's essentially theft from the public with some literal shite thrown in to the bargain. This kind of privatisation politics has to be over now

[@joshuaashmore1806]

a holding company is able to go to a bank and get a loan and use that loan to buy that company, then the holding company gives the company all the debt, and uses customers regular incomes to pay off debts. They bought it for free and the british are paying for it for them

[@realhorrorshow8547]

Not just £15 billion in debt. It has paid out over £7 billion in dividends over the same period. It's biggest shareholder recently declared the company to be "worthless". They're not going to stump up any £50 billion in investment. They're going to cut and run and our politicians will let them. Covering the debt and stumping up for the necessary investment is going to put water bills up to unprecedented levels. In the near future, some people in Britain are going to find that clean water is a luxury they cannot afford.

[@andychilvers4801]

Water company shouldn't be in private hands

[@audreymcgready4329]

It's not in Scotland.

[@birchplywood8464]

​@@audreymcgready4329And in Scotland they manage to invest significantlly more per capita in maintaining and improving water infrastructure while charging consumers significantly less.

[@drunkengamer1977]

​@birchplywood8464 Yup, our waters included in the council tax. You get what you vote for as they say and Scotland doesn't vote Tory. There's your problem right there England voted to be shafted so you're being shafted. Don't say you weren't warned never trust a Tory.

[@birchplywood8464]

@@drunkengamer1977 Sadly a lot of Scots do vote Tory. Just not enough to win most constituencies.

[@drunkengamer1977]

@@birchplywood8464 Only the Rangers yoons and well they're Scotlands Shame

[@kquat7899]

Dump the water CEOs in the worst affected rivers and see how they fare.

[@ukspawn666]

na bottle it and let them drink it without telling them, just sneak it into the CEOs and shareholders drinks and meals at the nice fancy resteraunts they go to... they think its fine anyway so they wont mind. 😘

[@petyrkowalski9887]

This is where the tories and privatisation for pure profit has got us. It all needs to be re-nationalised.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Everyone laughed when Corbyn said all this. Tories got worried. Why? All the people who have their money invested in different utilities raking in money and giving very little in return. Tories think privatisation is a good thing.

[@petyrkowalski9887]

@@janetmalcolm6191 yes…exactly. Its pure grift. How is it right that shareholders and so-called CEOs of monopolies can make £millions from essential services with no competition?

[@janetmalcolm6191]

@@petyrkowalski9887 Everything was set up for this.

[@waynewal971]

We are a 3 world country since privatisation and Brexit. It’s shocking profiteering at the expense of the people’s health and the environment!

[@user-xl8on7sf8o]

Why brexit??? Bit simple.

[@garethturner4811]

@@user-xl8on7sf8o because Brexit was all about deregulation . those nasty irritating eu regulations remember . like the ones the uk is now not adopting to do with pollution . nothing to do with Brexit though . nothing to see here , move along .

[@user-xl8on7sf8o]

@@garethturner4811 oh for goodness sake you remoaners get dimmer by the day. How long have these company's been releasing sewage.???. Way before we left. Who owns over 80% of the water company's. .

[@realhorrorshow8547]

@@garethturner4811 It's almost certainly a bot.

[@eddjordan2399]

@@user-xl8on7sf8o have you tried to run a business that imports or exports with our neighbors its so expensive its destroying mine my bros and nearly every other business in the uk! also its cheaper due to a shite trade deal since brexit to import lamb from the other side of the planet when we have the finest lamb on the planet right hear we cant sell. brexit has shafted us and bringing it back to this we now have no eu laws for river control and this government has done nothing to stop these private company dumping shite into our rivers!

[@selinanisbett5236]

No essential necessity should be privatised. It should be run by the people for the people.

[@harrish6]

Why we should pay our water bills when it goes to shareholders while our water is being poisoned ?

[@user-ol6rd7pl5t]

We need to start to put people before profits in this country. We need to decide if we want to live in a collective society where we all look for the best interests of society as a whole or continue down the current road we're on of selfish, greedy individualism as the Tories would like it to be.

[@petyrkowalski9887]

I agree. We actually need a written constitution to enshrine some things like utilities, energy genration, food production etc into law so that this pure short term profiteering doesnt happen.

[@nevertrustatory9412]

We need Electoral reform, so politicians are more beholden to the actual interests of the people.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Privatise, and give Government Assets to a private corporation. Ignore maintenance and upkeep. Mortgage everything with loans from the Banks. Give the money to the Board of Directors and shareholders. Declare bankruptcy. Taxpayers bail out the Banks. Rinse and repeat.

[@bigcrazewolf]

A very common occurrence for decades here in the US, sadly.

[@petyrkowalski9887]

The tory way. Carpetbagging .

[@paulbo9033]

Throw the politicalians and executives responsible for this disaster in jail!

[@andrewcoulson2375]

Or in a river, harder to get out lately 🤷‍♂️

[@richardhorton25]

I believe the Health and Safety Executive should prosecute the Directors of the Water companies for endangering public safety along with the ministers in charge of the Dept of the environment for the past 10 years

[@bigN-422]

How to f.... a first world country? England: hold my pint!

[@andrewrowlands5840]

The water boards responsible for contaminating our rivers, Lakes, and seas.s should be jailed and the water companies should foot the bill in full to clean up our water.

[@billdingsite5]

Unreal!!! UK living even now in Thatchers shit show.

[@cheesepuff455]

Folks do realise we cannot survive without clean water🤷‍♀️

[@parametr]

How about fines defined as a percentage of revenue? How about making CEOs personally liable?

[@drake128]

There was a bill that failed to pass in parliament recently , would have made it criminal .

[@user-xl8on7sf8o]

Nothing will be done to interrupt proffits.

[@susanmiller14]

The Environment Agency is not fit for purpose. Properly fund them, rather than local groups fund raising to do their job for them.

[@robertgrace6182]

Judging by other areas of legislation, the concept of people dying won’t affect our incumbent government.

[@chrisspencer6502]

Why do MPs neee to ask what is the quality of our rivers. They should be holding a report from the environment agency. 21% are good, ok so that means 79% are bad.

[@grizcuz]

The Environment Agency has had its funding and staff decimated over the last 14 years. They are also now far less likely to monitor, investigate and prosecute the people and companies polluting our environment. This isn't a bug, it's a feature, this government only cares about further enriching the wealthiest, anything that might get in the way of that is seen as a nuisance, even if it endangers people and the natural world. What's the solution? Don't vote Tory!

[@SteveWhipp]

This is what happens when there's a revolving door between government agencies or regulators and the companies they're supposed to be regulating. (An 84% decline in prosecutions in the last decade) Couple that with huge "Austerity efficiency savings" and you end up with historically poor outcomes for our environment.

[@PostModernTruth]

'Good' also suggests to me that it is at an adequate level, as opposed to very good/pristine etc.

[@realhorrorshow8547]

The Environment Agency has been gutted and threatened with worse if they rock the boat. They haven't been able to do their job for years.

[@zebraforceone]

Welcome to tory britain

[@djstuc]

Eeeee, isn't it funny how all these water companies when governed by laws against polluting water, managed to not pollute water... now some of those laws have gone they aren't able to.

[@calderarecords]

When you're enslaved by money, everything else shall suffer. Yet, the public refuse to stop slaving away to support this strange system. So everyone just bitches at each other.

[@IanScout1]

Anyone who even considers voting for the Tory’s again needs to take note, doesn’t matter WHERE you live you will be affected,what about your children? ELECTION NOW PLEASE!

[@rivetjoint9628]

Every person in the UK needs to Text, email or ring there MP and tell him to get his finger out!

[@SteveWhipp]

... to be fair, all the tories have got a lot more to be worried about, right now. You can't expect them to care about such things when they're likely not to be in a job in 6 months. No, they'll be spending their time lining up consulting gigs and calling in all the corporate favours they've built up over the last 15 years.

[@rivetjoint9628]

@@SteveWhipp Your more than likely right about that.

[@harrish6]

Every water consumer should withhold payment

[@geoffallan3302]

Or hers

[@AJSt815]

My local mp is kevin foster he won't do Jack s**t.

[@56postoffice]

This is the result of 35 years after the water companies got privatised in 1989. I remember the ad campaigns for both this and the electricity companies in 1990 and both lacked the enthusiasm of the "if you see Sid, tell him" ads for British Gas in 1986.

[@virtious8]

Welcome to Tory Brexit Britain.

[@MatrixEvolution17]

should be considered ecocide

[@RJAH355]

Is this supposed to be a joke. The taxpayer is paying billions of pounds a year to are government and they don’t know what’s happening with are drinking water. Why do we keep paying tax for nothing in return.

[@verandisoldusty6834]

*our

[@RJAH355]

@@verandisoldusty6834 and your point is. I got the wrong word. Well done. It’s still are government.

[@davidorf3921]

Very simple answer have the boards of directors for the various water companies swim in the most polluted river in their area on a daily basis, then see how long it is before they magically fix the issue

[@katebradshaw9280]

Yaaaaaay, Brexit! Take back control. Take back control. Take back control! Woooooooooooooooooooo-hooooooooooooo! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤮🤡

[@alanmayes851]

This shambles has nothing to do with brexit, these utilities were privatised a long time ago. The priority with these agencies now are to pay fat cat wages an appease shareholders, they have not been regulated anywhere near where they should have been by any political party that has been in government.

[@stuontwo677]

This issue was occurring and we'd be in the same spot with or without brexit. What has brexit got to do with this issue? BTW also not a fan of brexit, but fail to see how it applies to this issue?

[@martywestywood6004]

Brexit not effected much yet in this area. We roughly follow EU water quality objectives and regulations still, and look how bad it is. Imagine thought the future, if the uk diverge from EU regulations. In the past surface water was polluted by industry, that's largely gone off shore, now its sewage and farming, and the troys seem intent of off shoring those industries too. Basically, there are too many people, too much sh1t, and too little infrastructure to deal with it, mismanaged by private profit making companies.

[@theramenshamen9599]

Much as i detest brexit, this is a problem that has happend irrerespective of brexit, privatisation is the problem

[@leod-sigefast]

This is part of what Brexit was all about: deregulation and profiteering. Hopefully it is affecting those areas that voted for it.

[@user-ko4xj3fs4t]

Yet another negative for England. Is there anything good left in England?

[@yetidodger6650]

You'll be fined for pissing in the park.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

So you should be. Toilets albeit if you can find one is the place for that. Not doing it in the street even is best.

[@trulymental7651]

Sarcasm babe​@@janetmalcolm6191

[@seebarry4068]

​​@@janetmalcolm6191dogs and wildlife piss in the park. Do you somehow think human piss is different? Sometimes Janet, when you are older, urgency is a problem and so long as there is no intent towards indecent exposure, there really isn't an issue. I'm sure you will correct me though.

[@Kx0195]

​@@janetmalcolm6191 but that's exactly what the water companies are doing is his point and they can pay a tiny fine and be done with it. We would be slapped with a criminal record.

[@TheHonestPeanut]

Yeah that's got nothing to do with water contamination.

[@AllenTaylor-lu9bu]

Mass poisoning must carry a jail sentence for these CEO's who will take huge bonus on the back of a lack of investment. The amount of raw sewage they are dumping in our rivers is huge and happened more than 384,000 times last year alone.

[@drake128]

Just talking .. talking talking talking . We were doing this a year ago and nothing’s changed . What exactly needs to happen for it to stop ? Does a turd need to squeeze out your tap before it ends and people are held accountable ?

[@actuallypaulstanley]

How can rain be classed as an emergency that allows water companies dump raw, u treated sewage into our rivers, waterways and beaches?

[@jonm7272]

It's because they haven't spent the money to build the infrastructure to hold back increasingly heavy rain events. Despite borrowing billions of pounds which they then hand over to their shareholders while the services they are supposed to be delivering gradually fall to bits. The tory parasites wet dream of privatisation.

[@andrewbailey7999]

In the UK we have a combined sewer system, so drainage from rainwater ends up in the same pipes as sewage. This rule is in place to prevent people's toilets from backing up during exceptionally heavy rainfall. Issue is they've been siphoning money out of the system for years, paying massive dividends and bonuses instead of investing in the growth of the system to keep up with demand. So now we're in a situation where the sewers get overwhelmed even when we haven't had any rainfall! Drinking water has had similar levels of neglect, so don't be surprised if we see hosepipe bans this summer, despite having had the wettest winter and spring on record!

[@actuallypaulstanley]

@@andrewbailey7999 great explanation, thank you.

[@Human-le9nt]

Is it true that rain water is now too toxic for watering garden vegetables/edible plants?

[@slartyfretwerk3905]

This government are the biggest effluent in our system.

[@mrdylanhannah]

Atrocious levels of care for our rivers! Absolutely atrocious!!!

[@TheHonestPeanut]

Looks like you guys are catching up with the US in the 70s.

[@bernieburrows3731]

Utterly Shocking!

[@daveb7095]

How the hell can they give shareholders dividends!!!!!! The mind boggles. Why aren’t the water companies being prosecuted!!!!!! Ie not fit for purpose.

[@fayesouthall6604]

One of the biggest Brexit crimes. Allowing people to own our water and think of profit before repairing. The main problem is exasperated by the fact that treatment of sewage is expensive and the fines for dumping it instead is relatively cheap. The regulator is toothless.

[@grahamlong6870]

The question is always, how are people affected, when it should be how is this pollution affecting the actual inhabitants of the rivers and lakes? People have a choice as to whether they actually enter, or recreate on the water bodies, but the water life do not have that same choice. The invertebrates, (damselflies, shrimp etc) then fish, and the other creatures such as birds, mammals (water voles and shrews) not to mention otters have to suffer 24 hours a day. Those creatures are far more sensitive to pollution than any scientific tests mankind can devise. Life starts at the bottom of any system. Get that right, and the rest will eventually improve.

[@chrisholland7367]

Failure in their duty of care to protect their customers.

[@thestevenjaywaymusic7775]

Appalling situation. And meanwhile, all the shareholders are getting their dividends. What a mess. All water companies should be owned by the people! End of. Water is not a luxury, it is a necessity!

[@davidburrows499]

Under the Water Act the water watchdogs main brief is to ensure water companies have a big enough return on their investments. Water quality and infrastructure investment is secondary. That says it all. The Government needs to take a 51% controlling stake in all water companies to ensure any profits are reinvested.

[@lloydedwards7634]

Another example of Britain's broken infrastructure & nature depletion due to inadequate governance, regulation & enforcement as politicians continually kick the can down the road with endless reports & enquiries. Why won't politicians won't take action? Fear of being held accountable - they'd rather deny, cover-up & pass the buck; shockingly bad budgetary & project management (transport, energy & health etc); conflicts of interest; lobby groups; short term views in treasury & exchequer to the detriment of investment; continuous disruption as UK Governments chop & change priorities; over-centralisation of decision making; incompetence; ideology; deliberate cynical manipulation to secure votes etc. Others who are victims of the same phenomenon including Windrush, infected blood, P.O. Horizon & Hillsborough. The question is what do we do as ordinary citizens to change things?

[@markrobinson1458]

Nothing will come of this, the culprits will carry on earning funny money and retire before the 💩 hits the fan in another year or so.

[@hhjj621]

Is UK in 1839 AD yet!?!!

[@rnanerd6505]

With all due respect and affection to my British friends: how can you allow this to happen?

[@dawnlynch6300]

All comes back to Thatcher

[@tezinho81]

Labour should renationalise water companies on day one, they are pretty much guaranteed popular public support for that

[@raypurchase1239]

Profit over health and environment.

[@REGANELITE]

They Government don’t care

[@Simon_935]

Now watch them divert lack of investment into its all the farmers fault .

[@peterlynn3190]

Southern Water is always pouring sewage into the sea from Shoreham. Lots of carmel coloured foam around Brighton to Shoreham. Then there's the building unsupported by the sewage infrastructure. Not entirely S.W fault I imagine. But then with all that's going on I wouldn't be surprised if it's on purpose.

[@jonboymk1bridgemaryfront889]

Do you remember bck in time mid to late 90s & most of the naughtys. Every beach I visited had BLUE Flags for clean beaches. But from 2015s onwards we got polluted rivers beaches. most rivers now are not best for fishing unless fast moving rivers, but even then all pollutants are washed out to sea. look ere we are now 2024 we're moving backwards not forwards, with looking after our natural wildish assets. we the public let this happen because not enough of us care what's been happening last 20yrs ish with our lovely nature. But hopefully now most of us are getting out into our nature for walks with fam and friends etc, things need to change?

[@kellymckeever.6]

Why has the Government knowingly allowed this to carry on for so long, The environment agency needs to pull their finger out and actually do what they are employed to do

[@DavoInMelbourne]

Money, either under the table or through 'donations.'

[@Martin36544]

The Environment agency got gutted during austerity. Who did you vote for 2010-2015?

[@alice1374]

@@Martin36544 And they'll do it again under Starmer's Labour. Prepare for the second round of Austerity 'cuz it's happenin'

[@yousausage]

Have you seen who's been running the country for the past 14 years?

[@stujujitwingfut5192]

​@@Martin36544your vote is just a illusion of choice.

[@saturdayplayer2492]

Take all water companies into national ownership. No dividends should be paid and CEOs should be held responsible for polluted waterways.

[@pakkeungwan]

The affect on humans seems to be the benchmark on the health of our rivers, yet not a word on how this state of affairs affects the animal and plant life. It's such a narrow and human-centred attitude to dealing with what is human-caused.

[@anthonywilson8998]

It seems tome that everyone who wants to pollute can do so.,but everyone whose job is to keep rivers and shores clean do nothing. Now we are in a dire situation with no way of getting out of it. Nothing invested all given to shareholders. CRAP, CRAP CRAP.

[@chrisbates7743]

Tragically, none of this lot care

[@islandsedition]

The fact that the dominant member of the union is in the worst state says so much about the approach to the economy and society.

[@susanmiller14]

What about our seas?? We can’t swim on the south coast.

[@nathanaelsmith3553]

Both the Oxford and Cambridge rowing teams had to use reserves in the recent boat race because they had rowers off sick with ecoli. They no longer throw the cox into the river at the end as they traditionally used to because it's too dangerous due to polluting sewerage.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

​@@nathanaelsmith3553That is really bad I think.

[@hornetgamer8980]

How a couple of the water companies have behaved (including shareholders, which is a very sweeping statement but fair at least in Thames' case) has been sufficiently shocking as to seriously raise the question of retrospectively suspending the limitation of liability. There is a difference between knowingly spending as little as possible to meet contractual obligations and maximising profits, and knowingly doing so at the expense of safety.

[@CatholicSatan]

So Trump should have included the UK in his list of sh1thole countries?

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Looks like! I don't usually agree with him but there is a point here.

[@holz_name]

Where does the MP gets his info? Here are France's bathing sites inland (rivers, lakes) total: 1296 excellent: 949 good: 172 sufficient: 36 poor: 52 (4%). Where does he gets "France [...] 575 bathing sites on rivers [...] most of those bathing sites the water is in poor quality"?? Just 4% is poor quality, 4% is not "most". Source is European bathing water quality in 2022 from the EEA.

[@robbieofdoom]

Unless I misunderstood, I believe he meant that the UK river sites had poor quality water, not the sites in France. I think he just phrased the sentence ambiguously by mistake in trying to convey his point, which was that UK river sites are both far less numerous than they could/should be and in a worse state.

[@Human-le9nt]

A litre of bottled water costs in most countries more than petrol..

[@johnabbiss43]

the whole things a shambles not surprised given the state of our country ! meanwhile I keep paying my water Rates and Fishing Licence which Goes UP every year what a JOKE .

[@Skylark_Jones]

They keep discussing this issue but nothing is done about it. The government can do something about it today ie hold the companies in question to account: but they don't care.

[@edwardbernthal160]

gone are the days of fishing competitions, we have entered the age of catch the biggest turd.

[@mikeclifford7740]

Sounds to me like they are deflecting the blame, from the private water extortionists to the farmers and industry

[@blaircorral8158]

Who wants a holiday admiring the millions of tons raw sewage pouring into Lake Windermere 😢?

[@CatherineDover]

This is gross negligence and the water companies should be forced to clean up the water we pay for then sacked and the water nationalized.

[@paul8161]

So once this evidence is now shown to these mps and other mps, what exactly are they going to do about it?..and more importantly how has this situation been allowed to go on for multiple years?🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[@chris-non-voter]

Perhaps if "everyone" cancelled their payments they would listen.

[@MazzaEliLi7406]

People power. Wu-hooo! At least not everyone is complacent. Thank you for this even though the conclusions are so very depressing.

[@junglie]

The ceo's should be made to drink the water. they would suddenly clean it up then.....

[@kevinhay3778]

So what have we got to protect Mr priminister. Sort out the water. No oxygen no water no Life what is the need for protection 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@robba1234]

He had to throw Scoltand and Wales under the bus, so it looked worse for US and less for them, then admitted he didn't know chemically what our water was, so by his on statement he has no idea, what Scotland and Wales was ? Bullshill artist, The private company model is bad, really bad, far worse than public control. But that's Tories. Privatisation is only good with very strict regulation and good government oversight they had neither

[@MARTINA-gc3tq]

“Chemical status”. What is that?

[@shanehumberstone5262]

Water companies absolutely need holding to account,they’re all doing half a job for full money,and as for privatisation,that was the most selfish bastard thing to do to any national company

[@jasonharris8486]

'Oh Sylvan Wye, thou wanderer through the woods, how often have my phosphates flowed in thee'

[@marginalbabble]

Where is this converation taken from, can anyone let me know? Thanks

[@damienx0x]

Brexit is the reason this happened.

[@jonm7272]

Tory parasites are the reason this (and brexshit) happened.

[@Believe-you-me-]

*Tories

[@korolev-musictodriveby6583]

@@Believe-you-me-- The Tories are the reason brExit happened . Managed to con enough of the public to blame the EU for their own mismanagement .

[@31Blaize]

That we are reliant on citizen scientists instead of people being paid to do this is PITIFUL. This should be funded and professional.

[@user-gm3pl4io3r]

Housing Safety Minister Gavin Barwell ignored Grenfell residents several times.Got rewarded & put into the House of Lords instead of prison

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

When I worked in Food Manufacture we were monitored by the EA and local authorities regularly. Some how I doubt that still happens. Having said that, the two sites that discharged to river were cleaning the flow up, in that the water discharged was cleaner than the main stream. I know what standards can be achieved and that depends on the targets and how much needs to be spent.

[@kevinhay3778]

Did theses people have an education.

[@benwilson6145]

The Torys, Eton!

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Makes you wonder. They end up putting the most useless people in these jobs. Clueless.

[@ericfrewin2740]

The last twenty years has seen our river systems deteriorated at a rapid speed. The water companies are run by foreign investors who don't care that our chalk streams and waters in general are being poisoned to a point where there won't be able to recover . So much raw sewage is being dumped And the worst these criminals can expect is a fine. The head of the E.A should be held accountable.

[@chrisbingham3289]

The biggest problem was privatisation of the essential utilities and allowed them to be sold to foreign investors . When a company is run for profit, that profit will come before anything else including safety.

[@finianlacy8827]

We Are being lied to more than truth ed...

[@gentleeventful]

Fereshte looks as though she's still convalescing. She has been through a lot more than people think. I wish her well.

[@PixelRatedGames]

I don't understand the decision makers - do they not need drinking water too?

[@janetmalcolm6191]

They probably bathe in bottled water as they can afford it! Don't think of the rest of us needing clean tap water and clean paddling in rivers and sea. WE don't count.

[@user-ov7hp2cw1h]

The bottom line is we are screwed !

[@oc2phish07]

And with the present situation with parasites in the water and people having to boil all water before use, in Devon, this is a truly awful indictment of this government's failure to even fully acknowledge the problem exists, let along start to effectively tackle it. Once again, money and corporate greed rule the roost.

[@paul8161]

Begs the question if the environmental agency wont give guidance on clean water ,whats the point of them?🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[@chrisbingham3289]

No water company should have any right to pollute the sea or the rivers.