Cryptosporidium - is anyone having to boil their water?

M0nica

Last week R4's programme, The Briefing Room, looked at the water industry, in particular Thames Water.

If you want to know the full horror of how the owners of water companies have stripped £billions in dividends out of these companies and not invested a penny. I recommend a listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001yxl5

It's even worse than this, Thames Water in particular has borrowed money to pay dividends - really this should be picked up by auditors as it is not "prudent" which public companies are required to be. Now they have huge debts due to this as well as an appalling pollution record.
My husband was a consulting water engineer, working all over the world for the World Bank on improving water. We now live overlooking the Thames and very regularly see that the water is scummy and obviously polluted, he believes that there really is no excuse for it.
So much for Margaret Thatcher suggesting that privatisation would raise money for improving infrastructure.

The Times newspaper is running a campaign, Clean it up, and in today's paper there is a comment from the managing director of Severn Trent that the incidents from her water company whose sewage spills rose by a third last year , "did not make her feel good".
She was awarded £3.2 million in pay, bonuses and shares last year.
The leading article writes that the water and sewage industry is failing the consumer while excessively rewarding company executives and shareholders.Too true.

I heard somewhere that raw sewage was being pumped into lake Windermere??
My niece was only swimming in there last month😩

Mt61 There is also a piece in the Times on the fouling of Lake Windermere.

Every day we see people rowing up and down preparing for races, and sometimes even young children learning to paddleboard or in canoes and kayaks falling into the river. I do wonder how many of them contract illnesses from this.

I'm appalled! I have a house in Brixham and I have no idea how we can trust the water in our pipes and tank now. I look after someone who is neutropenic, it's a disgrace and he could have been killed if he'd caught crypto, an ' accident' waiting to happen. We need water taken back into public ownership except it's been effectively asset stripped for the benefit of shareholders!

There is absolutely no guarantee that this would not happen if the water industry were nationalised.

My friend who lives in Brixham has been saying since last weekend that she’d been feeling very ill but didn’t know why. Nothing on the news about it. SWW were still telling people that the water was safe until suddenly a big U turn very late in the day after they couldn’t deny it any longer. She is in her late sixties, lives alone up a very steep hill and couldn’t manage to bring a pack of water up from the distribution point, so was just continuing to boil it. Apparently it was going to be a hassle for them to give her just one bottle to carry as it had to be given out in packs.

Whitewavemark2 I agree with everything you have written, but I don't think Labour's plans go far enough. The water industry should be taken back into public ownership, and I would not give a penny to the shareholders in compensation. They've had more than enough from the British taxpayer. I realise that Keir Starmer will face tremendous difficulties when he becomes PM, but water really should be the number one priority

Germanshepherdsmum

There is absolutely no guarantee that this would not happen if the water industry were nationalised.

I suspect that most of the electorate are more than willing to take a chance on improvement under a new government. Nationalisation makes more sense to them than contributing to shareholder dividends

I see in the FT that OFWAT is proposing that water companies set up PFI deals to raise capital for renewing the infrastructure. Hmm. We know what PFI has done in the past...

I sympathise with everyone who is having to put up with unclean and, in some instances, infected water. It really makes me appreciate my bore hole which is nowhere near anything to contaminate the water. A recent fully fledged water test (done as I did think about moving and this test was required if I was selling) verified this.

I suspect that most of the electorate are more than willing to take a chance on improvement under a new government.
Yes, MaizieD, water quality it THE one thing that will sway my vote this time. Especially after our Tory Devon MP showed his foolishness over this issue.

At least under public ownership vast salaries and dividends wouldn’t be paid out, plus we’d know who to lobby for improvements. These huge salaries haven’t attracted the best have they? Just the best at feathering their own nests.

meddijess

Whitewavemark2 I agree with everything you have written, but I don't think Labour's plans go far enough. The water industry should be taken back into public ownership, and I would not give a penny to the shareholders in compensation. They've had more than enough from the British taxpayer. I realise that Keir Starmer will face tremendous difficulties when he becomes PM, but water really should be the number one priority

This. Remember when all our utilities were being sold off and the adverts all added the warning (in tiny letters right at the end) that 'shares may go down as well as up'?? Now's the time to prove it...! 😡

I had cryptosporidium 20 years ago. Dr said I and another patient got it from a reservoir in Derbyshire. Lost 2 stone weight (I was 10st), you could see bones in my fingers. Had 2 young daughters to look after so had to have help. Lasted about 8 weeks. Horrible.

The politicians are hand in glove with these people.They all enrich themselves by doing this. We suffer from Thatcher's 'market forces' ideal which basically means help yourselves. How can anyone earn millions at playing golf?

Perhaps you could explain your first two sentences Allex, and tell us who has helped themselves to what and how you know how much golf anyone earning millions plays?

I'm reading on FB that people in Goodrington, East Devon, Dawlish and Exeter are saying they have this. Whether it is this or Norovirus which is quite prolific atm idk. I'm still boiling all our water just incase although OH is insisting on drinking tap water. Dishwasher on at 60C as recommended online to kill this.
SWW are still not confirming the cause but think it's a faulty valve near a farm. So no further forward on this nightmare ending. On last nights local news 3 people were hospitalised mainly due to dehydration. SWW have just said they intend to compensate businesses who have lost money. What about people unable to work or have been ill for weeks? They should be getting compensation surely.

I live in Exmouth near Brixham. My tiny rescue dog has been getting tummy upsets for weeks now and I wondered if it was the water so I bought a filter jug system. I’ve been drinking only bottled water for a couple of weeks now.
But I shall boil the dogs water as well now !
I thought it was strange that two of my dogs had “squeaky tummy” at least once a week!
South west water have also had trouble here with sewage being pumped into the sea and rivers . Disgusting company 🤬

German shepherd mum
South west water have the most appalling reputation for telling lies and hiding the truth. They have been pumping raw sewage into the sea and making surfers and wild swimmers really ill with bad stomach /diarrhoea etc. and now they are contaminating the drinking water ! They pay huge dividends to their shareholders instead of putting profits back into the water system
If you want to learn more have a look at “escape “. A Facebook group dedicated to exposing all the spills and cover ups and corruption

They haven’t contaminated the drinking water!

What lies have they told?

There is a petition on 38 degrees. You can also write to The Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP , Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, House of Commons, London W1A 0AA. Come on - be SuperGrans and do it! Double dare you! Or just sit back while YOUR water company pays out millions of pounds of YOUR MONEY to shareholders.

I don’t suppose anyone has thought that their pension fund might be one of the shareholders …

The Lib Dems have posted a list of MPs who voted against charging water companies. Think most, if not all, of the names on the list are Tories.

Emilymaria, will look for that. Can you give me a clue about the wording?