A new report offers information on British efforts to improve polluted water supply: NPR
A new report offers information on British efforts to improve areas with polluted water supplies.
Little Huang, host:
The land of England – so an old song – is green and pleasant, but for years, many of its rivers have been dirty and gross. It is because of the driving of wastewater which causes pollution and led to considerable controversy in the country’s privatized water system. Now, a new major review is to shake the industry and clean the waterways, as reported by Willem Marx.
Willem Marx, succilate: humans lived near the Kennet river west of England for thousands of years. Today, the same goes for James Wallace, who showed me what was one of the favorite swimming points of his family.
(Soundbite of Birds Chirping)
James Wallace: It’s magnificent, but while we head to the water’s edge, we can see this carpet going to the bottom of the seaweed, which stifles the opportunity of life. And that means that on top, on the surface, we see a vibrant and healthy habitat, and below, we see a dead man. And it is because of wastewater pollution.
Marx: Pollution comes from a nearby wastewater treatment plant, led by a company called Thames Water. It is now notorious at the national level. In May, he was sentenced to a fine of nearly $ 165 million, a record, to release untreated wastewater in the rivers, with a separate fine to pay high but unjustified dividends to its shareholders.
Wallace: We see places like this, which are very protected, a natural environment, are ransacked by the benefits of the company.
Marx: Wallace directs an environmental campaign group called River Action and wanted me to see the treatment plant near Thames Water, a few kilometers upstream.
(Soundbit of steps)
Wallace: What if I show you some of the more wild bits?
Marx: Behind a green metal door, the installation manages smelly household waste water and the runoff of rainwater. But as the British population increases and its precipitation decreases under climate change, the pressure on the overall water system has increased, while expenditure does not historically have it.
Wallace: The system was designed to cope with years ago, but not now. Due to a lack of investment in industry, not only water from the Thames, this means that the whole of Great Britain is exposed to a serious crisis in water pollution.
Marx: And after wastewater began to obstruct the country’s navigable channels and to set the shores, this crisis on a system level caused a massive public outcry. The United Kingdom was once known as the dirty man in Europe thanks to his industrial pollution. This improved with the introduction of environmental rules. But then Margaret Thatcher has deprived the Victorian age system, and since then, a dozen companies – whose Thames water has been the largest – have been responsible for the supply of fresh water and the elimination of raw wastewater. It is a system that is largely faulty, explains Bertie Wnek, an infrastructure expert at the consulting firm in public policy.
Bertie Wnek: What we have is a situation where companies have been somehow encouraged to ensure that debts over time over time, and we now see that we pay the price of this behavior.
Marx: The UK water regulator had long prioritized the low invoices for customers, preventing companies from generating income as much as they wanted. So, some like the Thames rather counted on the loan of money to invest in new infrastructure and generate their profits, amassing huge debts along the way.
Hugo Tagholm: It is both an environmental problem. It is a health problem, but it is also a financial scandal.
Marx: Hugo Tagholm is a surfer and swimmer who directed the surfers of the campaign group against wastewater. He is now with the non -profit Oceana and criticizes companies for extracting tens of billions of dollars from industry as benefits rather than reinvesting.
Tagholm: This is something that is rabid the public. The system needs, you know, a massive investment, and this should really come from shareholders and owners of these companies rather than the customer.
Marx: Many companies recognize that investment is necessary, but affirms that the responsibility for the new financing should reside with regulators and political leaders, explains Jeevan Jones, chief economist of the industry defense group, Water UK.
Jeevan Jones: The way of obtaining investments requires clear regulation, solid boys of governments and a system that provides finances and investment projects that improve these networks and increase our offer.
Marx: For his part, Thames Water declared in a press release that it can take his, “responsibility for the environment towards the environment” and says that the UK water regulator, “recognizes that we have already made progress to solve the problems raised”. The government of Keir Starmer commissioned an independent report on these problems. The final results are released this month and will probably suggest a brand new regulatory system. This cannot happen early enough, explains Bhikhu Samat, legal director of British law firm Shakespeare Martineau, where he specializes in water regulations.
Bhikhu Samat: This is really a great way for us as a nation to look at our goals with water shortage and climate change that impacting us enormously. Recreation is late.
Marx: Customers of water companies hope that future changes could calm troubled waters, sometimes dangerously dirty of Great Britain. For NPR News, I am Willem Marx in Marlborough, England.
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