Our Unique Selling Point? : Sh***ing On Our Own Name?

The UK's privatised Water Companies currently have no legal obligation to report how much untreated sewage they release into rivers and the sea. They only have to say how many hours they have been actively doing this. Releasing untreated sewage, saves them money as they don't a) have to invest in increasing their treatment capacity and b) spend time and resources on actual treatment. That cash can be profitably directed to the shareholders and the CEOs. New figures show that Thames Water, serving most of London, pumped more than 70bn litres of sewage into the river, after which they were named (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/10/thames-water-pumped-sewage-into-thames). A lack of concern for the environment seems part of the general modus operandi for Water Companies. Welsh Water, for example, has been illegally pumping wastewater into surrounding habitats for at least a decade (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/19/welsh-water-admits-spilling-untreated-sewage-near-dolphin-habitat-for-decade). They have been doing this, in the absence of overflow levels being hit. Companies are allowed to discharge wastewater, when flooding, after torrential rainfall, is inevitable. Welsh Water even knowingly discharged into a protected dolphin habitat!