Drip, Drip!

England's privatised Water Companies have proved 'cash cows' for their shareholders and CEOs. The poor environmental performances of these Water Companys has, however, resulted in the UK's Ofwat (the government body charged with ensuring that consumers get a reasonable service), being given additional 'powers'. Ofwat can now block shareholder payments of companies, who fail to reach 'their' performance and environmental goals (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/20/ofwat-watchdog-shareholder-payouts-water-companies-targets). This sounds like progress. However, performance and environmental goals are negotiated between Ofwat and the Water Companies. There is also ample evidence that performance is not accurately monitored. The Water Companies 'mark a lot of their own homework'. The under-provisioned environmental agencies also don't have resources to effectively 'police' Water Company activity/inactivity (such as release of raw sewage into rivers or failure to fix leaks). Every little helps. It will be interesting, however, to see if, and how frequently, Ofwat uses its new 'powers'!