It is official we have the worst water quality standard in Europe!

Grantanow

Coffey is useless and should go. The next government should deprivatize the water companies without compensation - they have had a bonanza. No point in asking the Tories to do it - they don't care.

Water is one thing which should never, ever be privatised.

Paddyanne54 you have such a rosy view of where you live. You may be able to catch a salmon in the Clyde but would you eat it. Rivers are constantly being polluted by run off from farms and industry. Nor are all beaches award winning. The non domestic provision of water to eg industry, hospitals, schools is undertaken by private companies, not Scottish water. Not quite as rosy as you think.

Fleurpepper

Just thining about this, have any other European countries privatised water provision and treatment? I don't think so.

Such things are far far too important to be privatised with profits going to shareholders.

This would seem to be true but, quite a while back, there was a gransnet poster who had worked in the water industry before and after it was privatised. If I remember correctly (someone else's recollections may vary!), she said UK water quality (potable and sewage related) had improved after privatisation. She was not politically right wing.

So before everyone castigates the dreadful water Companies and their shareholders, might it be an idea to find out who actually owns them?
Are any of them owned solely by English companies? There is much foreign ownership of our English utilities.
Do we English have a say in what happens?

My little granddaughter, aged two, loves the sea and as we all live in Sussex, we go quite often. One time, on an incoming tide, she played a bit in the shallow bit. The next day, she was very ill with sickness, diarrhoea and a high temp and remained listless on the sofa or in bed for two days. About ten days later, we found out that Southern Water had released another storm discharge around Bognor Regis again, just when we were there. It is simply unacceptable and I am sure that she was not the only child or indeed, older person, to suffer. Living in Sussex as we do, we have friends and neighbours who enjoy the various water sports on offer esp windsurfing, where Chichester has produced world-class champions. Now it hosts one of the most polluted sea areas, thanks to Southern Water.

Coffey is useless and should go. The next government should deprivatize the water companies without compensation - they have had a bonanza. No point in asking the Tories to do it - they don't care.

Thank your lucky stars you don't live in the States.

Just thining about this, have any other European countries privatised water provision and treatment? I don't think so.

Such things are far far too important to be privatised with profits going to shareholders.

Paul Whitehouse recently made two programmes called 'Our Troubled Rivers' that are absolutely gobsmacking - if you haven't seen them, they're on iPlayer - here's the link. I really recommend them 😱
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jw74

I'm not getting involved in the debate about immigrants but on a practical point of view - where will the human waste that is collected in the barge off the coast in Portland go? will it be dumped into the ocean as this appears to be what water companies do?

No they didn't report it. The neighbours are new, elderly and from a different culture. My friend thought about having a word with them and saying 'Look. If the council knew that you were doing this, you could be in trouble'. However, she was afraid of getting old people into trouble or be accused of being racist. It was only that my friend happened to be at home from work that day that she saw it. They may be doing this all the time or someone may have told them and they haven't done it again.

Tell me, tell me do, PLEASE what are we or what do we have that IS better ie. not the worst in Europe!

I suggest you petition parliament to dump all the shite in your wee loch. We dont want it and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

As requested here is the source of the claim re worst water in Europe:
twitter.com/LucyWoodslucy70/status/1643197534423097344?s=20
The Anglers Trust who have welcomed the governments Plan for water, point out claims that pollution has declined are wrong 'as latest figures showing that during 2020 and 2021 storm overflows have discharged raw or partially treated sewage into our rivers on 760,000 separate occasions, lasting for a total period in excess of 5.7 million hours and the UK’s top bathing beaches experienced 8,500 hours of sewage contamination. The number of discharges reduced slightly in 2022, which according to the Environment Agency was largely due to the drought rather than action by water companies, but storm overflows still spilled for over 1.7million hours.'
'Additionallty there is no mention of replacing the 56% cut in government funding for environment protection which saw EA budgets slashed in real terms from £218.8m in 2009/10 to £94.3m in 2021/22. The situation has now become so dire that last year the EA ordered pollution control staff not to respond to Category 3 & 4 pollutions at all and the number of pollution incidents that triggered a visit has plummeted. Prosecutions for pollutions have fallen as a result to record lows – down from nearly 800 a year in 2009 to just 17 in 2021'
So fines down, shareholder profits up!
Apologies for not informing that Scotland is excluded from this problem!

Water companies have paid 66 billion to shareholders since privatisation.
Regulators seem weak and ineffective, is feel if there is no rapid improvement, the water industry should be renationalised.
I would be very interested to see how many MPs take money or have interests in these water companies.
I really gave respect for Feargal Sharkey for his work raising this.

Another benefit of Brexit. No more nasty regulations! Wonderful. And huge difficulties importing the necessary chemicals and technology. Hurrah.

disgusting isn't it? saying other countries have similar is just an excuse to let these companies carry on, I resent paying bosses huge sums in bonuses when they don't do their jobs properly. The only reason its being sorted now is cos there's an election coming up, otherwise water companies paying huge dividends to shareholders takes priority

Now there’s a suprise! Could it be something to do with the fact that our water companies are privatised and have to put shareholders’ interests before doing the works they are contracted to do???
You have to feel sorry for the 1%, after all the running costs of their mansions, fancy cars and yachts are enormous!
There used to be a saying about the quality of water in the Mediterranean
“One does not swim in the Mediterranean, one just goes through the motions”

It's not all the water companies fault. It's people flushing the wrong things downstream toilets. You can't even trace who it is. My friends in a flat and frequently gets back flow from one of the flats above her. The plumber has a good idea who's causing the problem but they are not allowed to approach that dwelling I dividually.

Hope she reported it

pascal30

Kate1949

My friend's house backs onto a canal. One day she saw her neighbour walk to the top of the garden and tip all her household waste into the canal. This despite having 5 council provided bins.

I actually gasped when I read this... how do people not realise they are polluting our precious world.. it just defies belief..

They probably do, but just don’t care..

Kate1949

My friend's house backs onto a canal. One day she saw her neighbour walk to the top of the garden and tip all her household waste into the canal. This despite having 5 council provided bins.

I actually gasped when I read this... how do people not realise they are polluting our precious world.. it just defies belief..

Tap water is a different question to sea and river pollution.
Our tap water is one of the safest drinking water in the world.
Plastics and chemical pollution isn’t often taken into account with European listings of clean rivers/seas.
Sewage discharge needs to be better monitored and start fining companies until it hurts.
I still stay away from the sea in any country.

I live on the northwest coast of England and our flat faces the Irish Sea. We do see people paddling and swimming in it but it still doesn't appeal to me to go in it so it must be ok. We have very sandy beaches so I think that has a lot to do with the colour of the water.
Our tap water is a different matter. It tastes disgusting and sometimes the chlorine smells stronger than at other times. I have a jug of filtered water in my fridge all the time for drinking.

Stop pointing at others. Our rivers are considered to be much worse than many other countries, particularly when we started to ignore EU regulations. Remember when we had blue flag beaches? Thérèse Coffey has a lot to answer for, she should insist on current regulations being enforced, bring in much more punitive fines and make sure they are adhered to - we have come to this situation because the companies found it cheaper to pay the fines ( which are often ignored anyway) than try to do anything about improving the infrastructure. Bring back into public ownership companies which do not adhere to regulations with NO compensation for shareholders.