Something in the water?

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reohn2
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Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

It's a mad country where Englands water(like the railways) is own by foriegn investors:- https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... piggy-bank
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
ANTONISH
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by ANTONISH »

reohn2 wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 7:54am It's a mad country where Englands water(like the railways) is own by foriegn investors:- https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... piggy-bank
I'm afraid Tory policy over the years has been on the basis that everything is for sale to all comers.
Psamathe
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Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by Psamathe »

To me the entire Water Utilities system is a excellent example of failure. Highlights why our core utilities should be run for public good not for profit (and running for public good probably means run in public sector).

Pouring raw sewage into bathing waters on a frequent basis ... and getting away with it for years. Beggars belief.

Ian
axel_knutt
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by axel_knutt »

Psamathe wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 11:18am To me the entire Water Utilities system is a excellent example of failure. Highlights why our core utilities should be run for public good not for profit (and running for public good probably means run in public sector).

Pouring raw sewage into bathing waters on a frequent basis ... and getting away with it for years. Beggars belief.

Ian
It's also a failure of government.

Government didn't fix the problem when they were public because it doesn't win votes, and they don't introduce legislation to force private companies to fix it because that doesn't win votes either. Public or private, the problem won't be fixed until people decide to vote for better environment and infrastructure rather than tax cuts. Most voters pay taxes, few swim in sewage.
“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
reohn2
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Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

axel_knutt wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 12:11pm It's also a failure of government....
Quite,and very disturbing one too!
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Biospace
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by Biospace »

On seeing the title I wondered whether this topic was about what's in our drinking water and changing the sex and possibly sexuality of fish. Do fish have representative bodies?

Water should never have been 'privatised', it's a nonsense.

Successive governments' failure to invest in an industry struggling to cope with industrial pollutants post war allowed private industry to claim, for a while, they were good for the consumer.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... tely-owned
https://www.ciwem.org/the-environment/h ... ale-talent
Dingdong
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by Dingdong »

reohn2 wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 2:49pm
axel_knutt wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 12:11pm It's also a failure of government....
Quite,and very disturbing one too!
It's also something that's rarely talked about or discussed in parliament, unless there's a bout of poisoning going on! The French are quite paranoid about where their water is coming from, they've definitely got that right.
reohn2
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

Dingdong wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 11:03pm
reohn2 wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 2:49pm
axel_knutt wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 12:11pm It's also a failure of government....
Quite,and very disturbing one too!
It's also something that's rarely talked about or discussed in parliament, unless there's a bout of poisoning going on! The French are quite paranoid about where their water is coming from, they've definitely got that right.
The lethargy of our government regarding the health and state of our rivers and waterways is a national disgrace and as you say is seldem considered in parliament the home of our pathetic government.
There'd be no problem if the companies who are responsible for the safety and cleanliness of those waterways were made by law to clean them up PDQ and their boardroom staff and CEOs were held on pain of very heavy fines and jail if they didn't!
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
reohn2
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Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

Article in the Guardian on renationalising the water:- https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rs-england
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Bonefishblues
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Location: Near Bicester Oxon

Re: Something in the water?

Post by Bonefishblues »

The other aspect to this is water abstraction. It's a double-whammy in that the companies pour poo into an already much-diminished watercourse because they've sucked the water out - either from the stream itself, or from groundwater sources.

Probably the highest-profile and most eloquent campaigner is Feargal Sharkey (yes, him). Long, but worth a look to see the current state of play in the UK:

https://youtu.be/YV3_Ca8CE5Y

It's a source of some shame (or should be) that it has taken the currently fashionable wild swimmers to bring this to attention, rather than anglers.

Take a look at this little vignette via Google Earth:

https://earth.google.com/web/@51.584680 ... 782188t,0r

What you see is the River Misbourne - a chalkstream. Right underneath is a pumping station extracting water. Follow it down 1/2 mile and you see the huge sewage plant...

But wait, Affinity Water, which is running the above plants is doing this:

https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/corpora ... estoration

Dear Lord on a bicycle, I'm not even sure what the expression should be - it's something like waterwashing :(
reohn2
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Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

Guardian article about the government's relaxing of pollution levels in rivers:- https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ver-health
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
briansnail
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by briansnail »

Patience hydrogen cells n a few years will ease shortage.
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Audax67
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Re: Something in the water?

Post by Audax67 »

ANTONISH wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 9:46am I'm afraid Tory policy over the years has been on the basis that everything is for sale to all comers.
Perfectly normal. A sales representative who sells something gets commission, so why not a representative of the people who sells the people?
Have we got time for another cuppa?
reohn2
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Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by reohn2 »

Audax67 wrote: 10 Dec 2022, 4:46pm
ANTONISH wrote: 1 Dec 2022, 9:46am I'm afraid Tory policy over the years has been on the basis that everything is for sale to all comers.
Perfectly normal. A sales representative who sells something gets commission, so why not a representative of the people who sells the people?
Nail,head,on!
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
pwa
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Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Something in the water?

Post by pwa »

Welsh Water is a not-for-profit company with no shareholders, which doesn't guarantee good service but does mean that they don't run the company with a profit motive top and centre. Perhaps other water companies ought to be like that.
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