The Channel 4 drama Dirty Business lays out for all to see the disgraceful state of our waterways, courtesy of the privately run water companies.
The drama charts the struggle of Peter Hammond and Ashley Smith to expose what has gone on with releases of sewage into the River Windrush, Witney, Oxfordshire.
Hammond and Smith are backed by a growing number of angry people.
Another strand sees eight-year-old Heather Preen contract E-coli, after playing on a Devon beach. She dies shortly afterwards in hospital. A tragedy, that later results in her father committing suicide.
The ridiculous situation where private companies have been allowed to rip off the taxpayer to make profit is made crystal clear (unlike the water).
Water was privatised in the 1980s so that private money would be brought in and the utility could run better.
Instead, it became a licence to print money.
The companies totally neglected the decaying infrastructure. Leaks were not fixed and reservoirs not built, whilst sewage was pumped into the rivers and sea. Meanwhile, shareholders reaped big dividends and debt piled up.
Regulation was supposed to be a safeguard, yet the Environment Agency (EA) has proved totally inept at enforcing regulation. Under resourced, they resorted to letting the water companies monitor themselves.
This is brilliantly summed up in the drama, when an EA employee, referring to the water companies, says: "So what you’re saying is regulate yourselves and let us know if you've committed any crimes."
There has been some tightening of control of the water companies by the present government, but nowhere near enough.
The whole sector needs to be taken back into public ownership and run on a not-for-profit basis.
One important development highlighted in Dirty Business is the growth of campaign groups seeking to hold companies to account.
The Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign is the focus. But there are many others, like Surfers Against Sewage.
Locally, the River Roding Trust is doing fantastic work, improving the river with a growing army of volunteers, as well as holding Thames Water and the EA to account over maintenance.
These grassroots groups are growing all over the country, demanding much-needed democratic accountability.
Tough, enforced regulation is a start to putting things right, followed by taking the facilities back into public ownership, when failing. Of course, this all needs resourcing.
- Paul Donovan is Labour councillor for Wanstead Village ward, Redbridge Council and a blogger (paulfdonovan.blogspot.com).
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