Environment: Dirty business in our water

World Water Day on March 22 will highlight the importance of fresh water and sustainable management of fresh water resources. Clean water, like clean air and fertile soil, should be a basic human right.

The recently aired Channel 4 British docudrama ‘Dirty Business’, about the state of the British water and sewage system, told the catastrophic story of privatising water utilities in 1989. Since then, these private water companies have utterly fleeced the public. Instead of maintaining water and sewage systems infrastructure, most of the profits have been given to shareholders, whilst also asset-stripping the company. Water companies lose over a trillion litres of water a year to leaky pipes. Sewage has been dumped in rivers, lakes and seas, damaging human health, biodiversity and aquatic life. Water companies have been convicted of over 1200 criminal acts, but none have had their licence to operate cancelled and no one has been jailed for filling our waterways with sh_t.

Nicola Shaw, Yorkshire Water’s CEO, received a performance bonus worth £371,000 and a salary and pension package worth £657,000.

placeholder image — Nicola Shaw, Yorkshire Water’s CEO, received a performance bonus worth £371,000 and a salary and pension package worth £657,000.

Polls show that most people believe that the water companies should be taken back into public ownership, allowing protection of both people and the Environment.

The situation in Yorkshire.

Dozens of dead fish have been spotted along Chesterfield Canal

Yorkshire Water have paid hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends and amassed £6 billion in debt. One third of our water bills goes on these dividends and servicing this debt. Moreover, our bills will rise by 6% next month.

In 2023 over 77,000 sewage spills were recorded in Yorkshire. Last year it was fined £700,000 for sewage spills. Meanwhile, since 2023, the chief executive, Nicola Shaw, received £1.3 million in previously undisclosed pay, despite a ban on these payments passed last year.

World Water Day in Sheffield events include Wild Swim & Water Films, part of the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (https://shaff.co.uk/shaff26), as well as many other sports and outdoor films.

Sheffield, ‘the City of Rivers’, was built along the confluence of five main rivers: the Don, Sheaf, Porterbrook, Rivelin and Loxley. The fantastic RIver Don Project aims to bring life back to Sheffield’s nature-depleted rivers and their surrounding ecosystems, aiming to show that “restoring the river can address intersectional crises like climate change, biodiversity loss, and community health”.

People are welcome to get involved with the Project. https://www.theriverdon.org/.