UK
It’s again time to tackle reckless water firms, just like in the 19th century

The Guardian
Sun, 9 April 2023 a

Photograph: Maureen McLean/Rex/Shutterstock

At the launch of her department’s cleaner water plan (Thérèse Coffey accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ over sewage scandal, 4 April), the environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, suggested that to overcome the water pollution crisis we would have to return to the “natural state of our rivers from the year 1840”.

This is ironic, as it was then that the limits of privatised water services were becoming increasingly clear. Rather than being in some kind of “natural state”, British rivers were being polluted on an industrial scale in the early 19th century, and private water companies were one of the main culprits, especially in London.

Like today, water companies behaved recklessly, paying out big dividends to investors rather than investing in infrastructure, and the consequences were devastating. In the capital, a series of cholera epidemics and increasing water activism eventually resulted in water services being brought under public control.

The current crisis demands a similar response. But the Conservative government remains wedded to privatisation and the Labour opposition is too timid to argue for nationalisation. We will all pay a heavy price for this, as water companies continue to pollute our rivers and place private profit over the public good.
Dr Geoff Goodwin
London

• At long last we now have some true, proven, huge numbers illustrating what is happening on ministers’ watch concerning something we all care about (Starmer accuses government of ‘turning Britain’s waterways into an open sewer’, 31 March’). Raw sewage: 1.75m hours of it pouring into our rivers and seas last year in 800-plus locations every day. Water companies are to be given 25 years by the government to sort it out. This will cost the nine companies £56bn, which sounds a lot, except that it is only £2.24bn a year. A small figure for the polluter to pay for the huge damage being wrought on this government’s watch.

Who is ultimately responsible for this huge, foul, stinking, unhealthy mess – the polluting water companies or the Tories, whose former ministers privatised the water industry, or both?
John Robinson
Lichfield, Staffordshire

• You state in your report that water companies have been “consistently accused of failing to take action”. What people are failing to take account of is that these sewage dumps are their action. Even with fines levied, they can “justify” their action as financial expedience. It is much cheaper for them to dump the untreated sewage than to clean it. Enough is enough.
Pete Lavender
Nottingham

• Water companies discharging sewage into rivers is only part of the problem caused by privatisation of the water industry. Public sewers in our towns are no longer maintained.

Our house has a Victorian sewer running across the corner of our front garden. It is clearly shown on maps as a public sewer that we have no access to. Adjacent land was sold to a property developer by the council to construct a house. The sewer was blocked by debris, causing a void under our drive and pavement and road. All our services disappeared into the void, making the house uninhabitable.

While homeless, we were told that we had to pay for repairs to the sewer and damage to the developer’s wall. We were sent a bill for approximately £65,000. We had spent our life paying for our house and we will never recover from the trauma caused by the privatisation of the water industry.
Pauline Morbey
Macclesfield, Cheshire

• So the environment secretary is planning to remove the current cap of £250,000 on fines against water companies because they still haven’t cleaned up their act (pun intended). It’s a disgrace that such a low limit exists when it has been obvious to the whole country for many years that water companies have been paying more attention to maximising dividends than investing in sewage processing infrastructure. Over £50bn has been paid out in dividends over the past 20 years, while raw sewage has been pumped into our rivers and inshore waters.

Privatisation was certainly a good move for shareholders; but alas not for fish, wildlife, swimmers and tpublic health. It is outrageous that criminal charges have not been sought against the greedy and uncaring board members.
Paul Garrod
Portsmouth