Paul Whitehouse and our dying rivers

I watched gobsmacked. How have the water companies got away with it for so long?

I was thinking if there was a way we, as captured customers could somehow place pressure on them.

Withholding payment would be the way as clearly their only interest is profit.

Not sure how that could happen though.

I would definitely be up for it though.

Why do people still flush wipes etc? A bin by the loo is all that is needed. I know it goes into landfill but that's another thread.

Pittcity

I watched gobsmacked. How have the water companies got away with it for so long?

It’s water companies and farmers too.

There is certainly a lot more to be done, the rivers have always been unsafe to swim in in populated areas, but not as bad a the 1950s. I have photos of our river with banks of foam drifting everywhere on Mondays ( washing day ) and industrial rivers were awful.
Diverse pollution from farming is a problem, there are a lot of rules regulating the amount of organic waste that can be applied and they are audited, any excess is sent to arable farms where fertiliser can be reduced. Occasionally there are accidental releases that the Environment Agency take very seriously, all in all there are a lot of regulations, if it’s not working they will have to be changed in the problem areas

It isn’t working anywhere!

katie59 what you describe is the minimum ideal but it isn’t happening.

Did you watch the programme? Because if so you would have heard the professor from Manchester university? Explaining how the water companies are frequently not “cleaning” the effluent that they are pouring into our rivers because it costs them money. Their profits are enormous,

I haven’t watched it yet. The environment secretary is ignoring the fact that sea life is still dying in the North Sea and refuses to believe it’s got anything to do with the dredging to create the new free port. Even though the deaths are still unexplained.

Farmers have quite tight regulations, fertiliser and manure quantities are regulated and can only be applied in the growing season. In addition green cover has to be established over winter to absorb any residual nutrients, farmers are sticking to the rules because the penalties are high, everyone is audited, if they are supermarket suppliers several times a year and every field has its own record.

Every cow, pig or chicken has its own quota of waste and every acre of land has its capacity for nutrients, any excess has to be sent elsewhere, usually to neighbouring arable farmers, where every crop has its own nutrient limits.

Pittcity

Why do people still flush wipes etc? A bin by the loo is all that is needed. I know it goes into landfill but that's another thread.

Ignorance I think.
But partly manufacturers fault I think, as the packets used to say they could be flushed.
So people can still be confused.

People see the word biodegradable and anything goes.

I haven’t seen this programme yet but will catch up with it. I grew up in an industrial city and the rivers were dreadful. Full of all kinds of industrial and other effluent. Nothing lived in them. Fast forward fifty years and I was catching beautiful healthy brown trout on the fly in those same rivers (and putting them back!), even in the stretches you would never have hoped to see fish. You need very clean water for brown trout, and a healthy river bed to support an insect population. One of the greatest joys of my life to see that. There were even salmon in some stretches of the Don. Testament to work by the environmental agencies and an army of volunteers many of whom were anglers like myself. I would hate to see that reversed, when the water companies are making obscene profits.

It's hardly a surprise - in our society, where profit is king and most people don't really care about the environment. They might talk the talk, of course, but will they change - or even accept any minor inconvenience?

Younger generations will never forgive us for our selfishness or the irreversible damage we've done, poisoning the world.

A very informative programme that I hope pricked a lot of people's conscience as well as the need to come down hard on the Water companies.
Only yesterday I saw wet wipes advertised as being flushable and sanitary products. Youngsters have to be trained not to just flush. We had to do it 30-odd years ago when a drain on our patio lifted and DDs saw what was there . We have always had paper bags in the loos and bathrooms to use and take to the bin.
As for farmers we live among them and have to be very careful what we say. It usually makes them look when DH says he no longer fishes because there are so few fish in the rivers.
The plastic on the bottom of the rivers as the prof said will be getting eaten by them.
We are a twenty-first-century country living with 19th-century drains.
The younger generation might not forgive us but they should think before they flush just like we know to.
There needs to be a slogan but can't think of one at the moment, something like bin don't flush but it needs to rhyme.
Any ideas anyone?

I think that the water companies are primarily to blame, but farmers are also guilty. The river Wye has been devastated by the run off from chicken factory farms.

Whitewavemark2

I think that the water companies are primarily to blame, but farmers are also guilty. The river Wye has been devastated by the run off from chicken factory farms.

They can be identified easily and upgraded to stop pollution, you have to ask why the Environment Agency is not enforcing regulations.
Chicken manure is high nutrient value, it is economic to transport it, so there is no excuse for polluting local rivers.

I love Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimers Gone Fishing so watched this knowing it would be troubling. But my goodness alongside the litter problem I've posted about on AIBU this really is really depressing. What an amazing young man in the Lake District though.So passionate about bringing about change. Alongside the other campaigners makes me feel I should do more.