I Explored UK's Most Polluted River & it's utterly disgusting
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Our politicians should be ashamed for allowing this to happen.
1. Blame Margaret Thatcher for privatizing the water system. (Privatization for the sake of privatization!)
2. Blame Tony Blair (and his predecessors Neil Kinnock and John Smith) for insisting the problems could be solved through better regulation. What it comes down to, is that privatization was bad for the people but renationalization would offend the Big People. And guess which group was more important to New Labour?
I don't think narcissists are capable of that emotion.
Also blame our current Tory government for slashing regulations and monitoring ass soon as we left the EU and there were no longer EU rules telling them what minimum standards they needed to follow. That’s why this has suddenly become so much bigger of an issue in the last couple of years. This is what taking back control always meant
@@Blaqjaqshellaqit’s not that easy, these companies were bought and the new owners put them up to their eyeballs in debt. There is no way that the taxpayer should take on that debt. Regulate, fine them, when they fail then take them into pubic ownership.
They dont know what shame is!!
These sewage companies should honestly rot in prison for what they are doing
They're just doing what their remit is to do... the government has allowed this to happen.
@@snowstrobe I heard it was because of Boris Johnson
It's the UK gov that has allowed this to happen. In Canada dumping raw sewage within 3 miles of Canada's shores is strictly banned.
Ofwat, the regulatory body in charge of this stuff needs to be given actual power, and soon as the contracts run out, it needs to be re-nationalised, privatisation of utilities, particularly when there's no competition is far too easy to exploit
@@KiLLKiNDLYboth Montreal and Victoria dump their raw sewage straight into the water no?
It's disgusting that the citizens currently have to pay to keep water companies alive and for the dividends of a bunch of higher ups, great video
They chose to, they don't HAVE TO.
#TakeBackStolenAssets
Water infrastructure is geographically FIXED they can't take it abroad!
I have recently written to Severn Trent water and told them I am not paying my bill until they stop discharging sewage into the rivers. They have not replied. I urge everyone to do the same.
So what happens when they take you to court for non payment, you think the broken court system in this shithole of a country will back your play? This kind of protest through non payment is moronic, because it doesn't hurt the company in any way shape or form, all it will do is negatively affect you and any other moron who thinks this is a good idea. @@philhawley1219
@@philhawley1219 yea do not do this. unless you want to go to court and have your water turned off
@@philhawley1219 So you want them to invest billions in the infrastucture but not pay your bill and have fresh drinking water. The tiktok generation makes me laugh.
I am a cold water swimmer in Lancashire. I have to drive 2 hours, high in the middle of nowhere to find clean water. It feels so sacred when you reach it. I wouldn't wash my arse in most of the water in the UK! Truly shocking.🐠
Yea, it’s not something I’ve done a great deal of in recent years, for obvious reasons. Good on you for doing. The benefits are lovely when you can.
I'm in Yorkshire and it's not quite as far but still shouldn't need to drive at all, the river down the hill should be clean.
You really do all that? I'm a playboatter who kayaks at the Nottz white water center all the time and it's a badge of honor for us to get illnesses from the river, especially if your lucky enough to get a new disease that no one's had before.
as long as you treat yourselves at home and don't put pressure on the NHS, swimming in toxic water is your choice and so are the consequences. can't see how it is a badge of honour though, what if one of you dies?@@freddiemedley5580
THANK YOU FOR SHARING, ITS SO IMPORTANT! I am currently doing a study into river pollution for an EPQ qualification, and everything I have been finding has been completely shocking
Yeah I knew it was bad, but researching for this video really opened my eyes to how bad it really is.
Leave Furious? In NZ it's the invasive Monterey Pine forestry slash runoff and some ' intensive stocking' agriculturalists within the Dairy industry destroying our waters and drainage. Near continual rain/ 'atmospheric rivers' at times in some parts this year sending clays & soil silt down from Cyclone Gabrielle damaged or Native bush & scrub denuded hills etc. Some younger farmers are realizing the issues an earlier generation created but water privatization will probably be on the agenda again with new Medium Right/ Far Right Govt tripartite coalition.
I recently finished a presentation on microplastic impacts ecological impacts, and one of the terrifying things I read from academic papers is that nanoplastics are in our blood. Another paper I read also indicated how nanoplastics had the capacity to enter algal cells due to their size and attach to the cellulose to block light. That's not even mentioning how most microplastics contain additives from their manufacturing or pick them up from the environment, such as Kairomone (a hormone) and can desorb these additives into the organisms that consumed them, causing physiological defects in the organisms that do survive. Yet, plastic production and subsequent degradation will continue for many years. It's a horror show to contemplate these occur in our freshwater bodies.
@@LeaveCuriousI think it is a lot better in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Well done for your studies. Most people haven't got a clue, they don't think beyond the tap. It is shocking. I watched David Attenborough talking about this, and the same things Leave Curious mentions in this video. It's an emergency, water and air pollution needs to be treated like a major public health emergency, not swept under the rug like it has been for so many years.
There are some small things we can all do to help, like making sure we dispose of our waste correctly so it doesn't enter water to begin with. Don't flush wet wipes, fats or sanitary products down the toilet or the drains. Plastics are responsible for huge damage to our rivers and oceans, so we can make sure we dispose of plastics and oils correctly and recycle as much as we can. Our vote is our biggest weapon. I will only be voting for parties that put the planet first. End of.
So outrageous… privatization of services seems to lead to this way too frequently. It’s absolutely criminal what companies are allowed to get away with these days.
But the politicians get a sweet backhander.
@@pincermovement72I'll give them a backhand if they want it 😂
Don't forget the politicians. It's these guys who allow water companies to behave like this. There shouldn't be any water companies, water belongs to all of us and should be a public service, paid for by the public and provided by the public sector.
The water companies invest far more money now than they ever did under state management. Leakage for example is a fraction today of what it used to be under the state.
But all investments are still dictated by the government, they set the policy, they approve and fund the projects. The water companies make money through investing in the infrastructure, not customer bills, they would make even more if they invested more but the government won't let them.
@quillo2747 This is what I've been saying for some time, also the Scottish water system is also discharging sewage yet the SNP have been denying it even though there is evidence of it. Another thing is that when sewers are blocked with things that shouldn't be put down them, they will overflow into the relief system and enter the waterways, consumers need to take some responsibility as well.
So glad someone has done dive into this, in the 60s when I was a kid you could not swim or fish in the local waters, in the 70s we started clearing them up, due to joining Europe I guess, When it was announced that Boris was allowing the water companies to pump raw sewage through to our rivers, increasing the problem, thank for doing this it need putting out there
Yes our goverment has sold everything. Take it back. If I can't do my job I'd be sacked. So who over-sees these private companies in in our country that we pay for every week.
Similar, as a kid in the 1960's my Dad used to tell us stories about how bad the River Thames had been in the 1950's in terms of pollution - if you fell in, you basically needed to spend to some time in hospital being checked in the event that you fell ill. Later in the early 80's my mates and I all used to swim in the Thames (Tilbury, Essex) with no adverse effects, yeah it was dirty and oily still, but not so bad that you'd find yourself ill. I went away to Uni for a few years at the end of 80's and came back in 93 and found all along the Thames at the places we used to swim, signs telling you not to swim in the river because of pollution. Over those following years I can only guess it's got worse. I think the nail in the coffin came with Brexit, one of the agendas there, was the "Red tape" agenda... The EU imposes too many regulations and over-sight on things that 'We' need to take control of and end the 'Nannying'. One of which was clearly water quality and the EU restrictions on effluent control/farm run-off/building controls relating to the proximity of industrial and residential developments etc. All of which were obviously stymying their potential to cut costs and maximise profit margins and their share value. Unbelievable that people voted for it, but given the recent news relating to the studies showing that the 'Leave' voters were by far lacking in cognitive abilities I guess explains that?
@@someblokecalleddave1 yes, Brexit, one of the agendas there, was the "Red tape" agenda spot on, the majority of people it was racist vote I think, it needs sorting out👍
@@stevenhibberd4162 well said
@@someblokecalleddave1 literally nothing changed in the water Industry since Brexit, if anything consents have been tightened, and continue to be tightened, but don't let that affect your fantasy........do you want a tissue?
As soon as you get shareholders, the whole aim of any entity is to make them as much money as possible. Nothing else matters, which is one reason why the environment everywhere has been plundered, despoiled and destroyed. Seeing those poor ducks there made me think of what Isabella Tree said in Wilding, when species were found at Knepp flourishing in restored habitats which we didn't think were their normal preferred ones. She said that the environment was so degraded by humans that wildlife was having to make do because there was nothing else. These ducks are having to make do with the crap water quality because there is nothing else. I often see herons and egrets here in Japan in dirty water channels with plastic litter in and it's heartbreaking that they have had to adapt to such crap conditions to survive. What happens to all that plastic litter? Is it caught in contraptions further down the river? And what kind of moron puts nappies down the toilet?? The general public is also responsible. Plastic objects including sanitary products should not be disposed of down the toilet. How about a national campaign for that to start with?
As someone from a post communistic country, I don't agree with you. The government is much worse
How about instruction videos on where to put used nappies? I used to work at a farm and visitors kept on putting used nappies in the recycling bin! How stupid do you have to be?!
@@david2057 Then I don't know what the answer is...
you don't get anywhere by focusing on the people and restricting them even more. you focus on the company CEO's, shareholders, high-ranking government officials, bankers, etc.
@@david2057 who mentioned communism you tit? Having water companies publicly owned is not communism. Regardless, your opinion is based on your own anecdotes and isn't a reliable measuring stick.
Fooking disgusting
The government should be ashamed for letting this happen
Knowing their recent behaviour, I wouldn't put it pass them to turn it into a wedge issue
This government has no shame
Their tories. They don’t know what shame is,or empathy, or sincerity, or compassion, or love, or poverty. I’m sure I’ve missed a few out.
Look at what the rich have done
Your content deserves to be viewed in schools nationwide.
Our young people need to know this.... Bravo!
Nationalised water can't come soon enough! The private sector will never be motivated to act in the interests of the general population or the natural world
Kier Starmer has ruled out the nationisation of any service under his premiership. I won't come soon enough.
The water industry was never privatised in Scotland - and Scottish Water as it is called spills sewage all the time too. The water ain't cheap either.
Nationalizing water wouldn’t solve the issue. Look at the NHS, wealth stripped from public to private entities.
The private sector are literally the sloths of the business world. Why should they do anything of value if they can just rig everything in their favour by doing nothing.
The govenment couldn't afford to buy all the water companies back to re-nationalise the industry
Well said sir. Kudos for creating public awareness on this.
He's not your friend
Correct, never met the man. Enjoy and highly respect the video content that is produced.
Thanks for, as always, raising awareness on this topic. Makes me so angry seeing what the water companies are doing.😡
And the politicians who allow and encourage them to do this. It's the politicians who could take direct action to solve this issue if they chose. Instead they wasted MILLIONS of pounds of your money on the HS2 disaster. All the money wasted on that could have gone into improving existing rail services AND upgrading old sewage treatment facilities and building new ones in areas where the older ones are not coping.
Thank goodness people are alerting the public to this! I live in Johannesburg and believe me we have the same problems down here. The biggest issue is with industrial effluent which is entering the river systems at the city’s altitude of 5000 feet above sea level and therefore everything downstream, including the prime agricultural areas around the city, are heavily polluted with phosphates and nitrates, in addition to raw sewage from the overpopulated city.
Phosphates and nitrates tend to come from agricultural run- off are you sure industrial effluent is the only cause?
There’s an element of agricultural runoff but primarily it’s the city’s industry and human activity that are the main contributors.
@@davekershaw3695 ok, hopefully you can close the industry and place proper measures to at the very least filter the runoff, though it's weird that an industrial facility is allowed to expel waste like that, most countries have very strict regulations about that
Unfortunately the country’s water supply, treatment and sewage is a nationalised entity. There’s apparently limited funding for ‘essential’ maintenance and the system is severely constrained. Action groups are largely self governed and have limited impact.
Thx for sharing.
ah thank you very much 🙂
35 years the private water industry has had to show that privatisation is best for the country. But of course, it's shown the opposite. Of course, it has! A company's first priority is making profits for its shareholders. If it can't do that, the shareholders take their money elsewhere. Then the company doesn't have money to exist; end of story for the company.
So let's not do that anymore. Some things need to be done for the good of the country.
The water companies invest far more money now than they ever did under state management. Leakage for example is a fraction today of what it used to be under the state.
But all investments are still dictated by the government, they set the policy, they approve and fund the projects. The water companies make money through investing in the infrastructure, not customer bills, they would make even more if they invested more but the government won't let them.
Due to the public outrage investment has doubled this investment cycle, Yorkshire alone are spending about 8 billion on infrastructure over the next 5 years and most of that is on the waste side.
The main reason the waste system cant cope is massive population rise from mass immigration. An extra 20 million peoples turds every day compared to a few decades ago.
The UK's combined sewers are a relic of the Victorian era which underscores the lack of investment, not just by the private companies who have been there since the 1990s, but also the public ones that preceded them. Honestly, i am not certain that renationalisation in the current British political scene would be any better. Private companies are about maximising profit - we all know. These particular companies however, are supposed to be tightly regulated to avoid this lack of investment. I think the real issue lies with a dysfunctional regulator.
I thought the same. You've got to ask, what even happened to the proceeds of the privatisation of these utilities in the first place? It's _that_ revenue that should've been invested into capital works... waiting for private enterprise to do it for you seems weird.
I'm not sure, but I do know that in the late 90s and early 2000s there was a lot of money being spent to improved infrastructure including preventing storm spills into rivers. I know this because I was working for contractors and consultants in the industry. The work was required to comply with EU legislation - I think it was called the water framework directive. It would be interesting to understand more about when the water quality in rivers declined again.
The problem goes deeper.As a nation we are woeful at investing in our infrastructure. and planning long term. We prefer to keep our money rather than pay the taxes needed……and privatisation was an attempt to pretend that we were doing something when we weren’t .
God, that is foul. The environment deserves way more respect than it is getting. May it one day soon be swimmable and stay like that. Cheers mate 💚
It's crazy that people do swim in these.
I am honestly speechless. You're doing some amazing work, I hope there will be consequenses for those assholes
They’ve been getting away with it for years and all the factories that dump chemical waste into rivers. They’re given poxy fines which do nothing to stop it.
As Sunak has just appointed the husband of an Anglian Water executive as our Environment Secretary, the only consequences look set to be higher profits, higher bills and more sewage in our rivers.
Unfortunately not 😔
It`s what comes out of their assholes I am worried about.
Heres just a few organisations that are working against this problem, I'm sure theres many more, so please share!
www.sas.org.uk/
theriverstrust.org/
facebook.com/BeneathBritishWaters/
We own it, is another organisation trying to tackle this. Along with other problematic privatised public works.
I wonder how much money has been lost from tourist destinations due to this sewage being dumped in rivers and the sea. Yet the companies are still allowed to do it.
Not much, I'm from Nottinghamshire (the capital for water sports in the UK) and If anything watersports have just grown in popularity over here. We have the eigth most polluted river in the UK and the company that runs our waters, the Seven Trent waters, owns the most polluted river in the UK.
Imagine Spain letting this happen. Not. Disgrace
@@freddiemedley5580 watersports the thing where the aim is not to go in the water... Not to mention your anecdotal evidence is that it has grown, I have to ask how much further would it have grown without all this sewage. Because it seems you are claiming all this sewage is attracting people, unless it's a different type of watersports you are talking about.
Such a good video and such a good topic to touch on. The exact same thing happened here in Australia with the privatisation of basically everything. It all becomes about profit and not actually improving anything, keep going Rob! PS the stash is still looking good
Rob, with the moustache, would fit nicely into some of the 1970's cowboy films..
Thanks for shedding light on this!
Absolutely shocking 😢 here in Belgium we unfortunately have plenty of environmental struggles as well, but the thought of not even separating sewage from rainwater is bonkers. Over the past 30, 40 years they've really improved on that here. Only 9283045 other issues to tackle haha 😅
The combination sewage system is a bit of a weird one.
At a building and street level they are separate and (mostly!) continue to be separate. (I.e. the road drainage system doesn't just have poo floating down it).
The mixing is from building roof and exterior channel drainage in buildings typically over 50 years old. For housing that could be 60+% of the stock, commercial buildings will be a much lower proportion.
The difficult question on who should retrofit privately owned buildings, particularly houses, with separate connections or soakaways means it's unlikely to be resolved at that level.
I believe that in Belgium, like most of Europe, you also have a similar legacy combined sewage system, TH-cam removes comments with external links, but a quick Google for 'Belgium combined sewers' or 'Belgium sewer discharge' found sources and groups trying to reduce the number of discharge days into a Brussels canal.
The fact that most countries experience this problem with a wide variety of water company ownership structures suggests to me this problem is likely a mix of an increase in extreme rainfall events and the difficulty in spending money to increase infrastructure capacity to cope with the 1% event when it does fine 99% of the time.
@@russellpengilley5924 yeah absolutely, goes for us here as well. It's massively improved over the last decades, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Still is bonkers that it's not a given to separate sewage and rainwater, the underinvestment in the water management industry is a fact. The river Zenne (a river that goes through Brussels) was known as "the open sewer" in the 90s still, and it had the absolute stink of sewage coming off it. It falls mostly to private persons to cough up the cost of separating rainwater from sewage water when renovating houses, but a lot of councils will incentivise private persons to do so.
It's the absolute volume of sewage draining into rivers and seas in the UK that gets me. It also happens over here, but I feel it has improved a lot more in the last decades.
Where I live (rural Southern Germany) there combined system is replaced by a separated system when a street and its underlying infrastructure need to be redeveloped. Retrofitting individual buildings is relatively easy by just disconnecting rain pipes from the existing system and digging a new trench (of course that might involve opening and repaving your driveway) to the rain water sewers
@@foobar9220 same here for newbuild/renovated homes, offices, roads...it's become law to do so; as we has 400k houses not connected to sewage systems not too long ago...Flanders is undertaking 183 sewage system renewal projects as we'd been lagging behind. But the issue now is not as much the sewage systems (lots of work done over the decades) but the agricultural and industrial run off/waste water dumping. Hopefully they'll tackle that soon, too.
@@KateVeeoh the video was a bit misleading that nothing has been done over time period to improve separation.
A bit of Googling shows that in recent years Brussels has ~10m cubic metres of discharge per year and Thames Water who cover central London and some suburbs discharge ~40m cubic metres per year. Adjust for population (Thames Water has ~9m customers) and it's broadly similar.
It's not surprising really that it's so similar, most of Europe planned their sewage systems at the end of the 1800's and shared experiences and designs with each other. Since then we've had similar population growth, similar weather pattern changes and similar regulation. We probably use the same engineering consultancies to provide the upgrade designs too!
I think the public are getting closer to agreeing that we need to pay for either massive catchment tanks, or full infrastructure separation, but it's coming in at £200bn+ or £7000 per household. Which is simultaneously cheap as a one-off cost to solve a big environmental problem, but expensive at an individual level even if you spread it over 10 years.
Not only have the water companies paid out £70 billion on dividends, but they also _borrowed_ £70 billion over the same time, essentially borrowing money to fund shareholder dividends, which is _supposed_ to be illegal. I would love to know why successive UK governments have seen fit to allow the water companies to operate in this manner.
because they are C U * T S. great comment
@@7HUNDERGOD-fx5ct yes its the government but don't act like the Tory party had nothing to do with it. They been in power for 20 years and nothing has gotten better, only worse. Conservatives and austerity go together like piss and shit.
Water companies don't make money from customer bills. They make money from planning, building and maintaining infrastructure. Its the government that approves and funds that infrastructure. Its the government that has been underfunding, the government controls the money and what gets built.
Anything extra, usually short term reactive work, has to be taken on debt. Yorkshire Water alone are spending 8 billion on infrastructure in the next 5 years. Your 70 billion nationaly since privatisation wouldn't go far.
@@quillo2747 UK water companies spend an average of 28% of the money that get from customers on debt servicing.
The remainder of your post is barely worth dissecting, except to say that the water companies are privatised. They were privatised by the tories in order to “make them more competitive” and to reduce the burden of the once publicly-owned on the public purse (taxpayer). i.e. They are privatised, shareholder-owned companies. Unless you are happy for taxpayer money top go straight to the pockets of water company shareholders, they should never be in receipt of any kind of government subsidy.
Get the message out there. Thanks for doing this important work.
That’s so terrible. Human GREED is so terrible 😢.
It should be made a crime to be so greedy
@@user-my8bb6nc1x if they had any instilled values, standards or morals they wouldn’t have let themselves become monsters 👺 and demons 🤡. There are plenty of rich people who do wonderful Philosophy work by helping society to set each other up for success…. And then there are those who don’t have any instilled integrity and they disappoint everyone by being greedy, selfish, nasty 🤮 monsters 👺 and demons 🤡.
It's similar thing over here in Australia 🤮, thank you for raising and bring this to the community and our attention.! Keep up the good work. 🙂👍
Not so much. Sydney's pipelines of raw sewage into the deep ocean off Malabar, North Head and Bondi, are the last vestige of the "bad old days". Melbourne releases tertiary treated Class A+ water that could be used for irrigation, or returned to catchments for eventual recycling into potable water (if people weren't squeamish about it). Local government authorities investigate illegal stormwater connections to the sanitary sewer, and property owners are issued notices to rectify the situation. Failure to comply results in a fine, and the local authority can order the work be done by a licensed plumber at your cost.
Thank you so much for all your hard work!
Its what I'm here to do, thank you for the support!
What a shame! Thanks for raising this issue! Water companies should be placed under strict public control and be inspected regularly with inspection results officially published and necessary measures taken immediately!
I like that you’re highlighting the issues facing ecosystem health as well as the projects reversing the damage. It’s a good balance.
Blame the water companies, yes, but who allows them to operate like this? The government.
Sunak has just appointed the husband of an Anglian Water executive as our Environment Secretary
and why is the government so corrupt? who is the government indebted to?
simple questions with powerful answers
@@user-xg2zh6hk7e They're so corrupt because that's how they were brought up.
The answer is the Tory's, the rich and the upper class @@user-xg2zh6hk7e
A while ago a judge decided that a company do anything for profit it decides to do in order to save the company from failing (losing money)
We need to overturn that judge's judgement.
🕊️✝️
I live by the river Almond up here in Livingston, Scotland and for the last five years it's been howling. Work has been done but you can see the signs of raw sewerage everywhere. I just hope we can turn things around in the near future. Corruption seems to be everywhere.
I live near the river Aire in West Yorkshire and it reeks of raw sewerage every time it rains. Yorkshire Water are as scummy as the stuff they release into the rivers.
@@plottwist1733 What we have here is a bunch of corporations with zero authority telling us they have all the authority. Fascism in full flow. Exactly why our parents and grandparents went to war! Our government Isn't ours anymore. Conglomerate puppets who have fell into this global agenda. It was plain to see in '20 when they just acted like salesmen for a large pharmaceutical company. Disgraceful
Thank you for the video. I do not live in the UK, but recognize that this is a serious problem that must be addressed.
Feargal Sharkey, from the undertones, has been doing great work on this and there is a book called The Last Drop by Tim Smedley which is great about water - with certain mindblowing sections on the UK
This whole situation is disgraceful. What's even worse is that upon looking into the political side of this, I found the following:
Labour put forward a bill to hold these water companies to account, but it was rejected by our Tory MP's. Upon further research in my area, I found that my local MP voted against this and has shares in Southern Water. Conflict of interest? We need to ensure that we never let the Conservatives into power ever again.
Amen!!
Despite all this the sewerage charge is still the most expensive in Devon/Cornwall.
Well I guess we know which party privatised the waterways in the first place (thatcher). Just another way of trying to keep the rich richer and killing the poor quicker 😂
Tory party is nothing but conflict of interest, they're opening robbing the UK blind cause they know they dipshit supporters will eat up any excuse
Pretty much everything they privatised they have shares in - I hope all this makes so-called conservatives go away - they should be called the destruction party
I live near Folkestone/Dover and fairly regularly cannot swim of kayak in my local sea because the water is so regularly polluted. Its kind of depressing actually. I grew up here near the sea and love the water but cannot access it because water companies keep releasing sewage into it. Its an outrage
Hey, Prongsie. Lived in Folkestone for years and the surfers told me they often got stomach bugs after being in the sea off the sandy beach. There's a sewage outlet just off the coast at the Leas pouring out literal crap. When I went fossiling at the cliffs there I could sometimes smell the tide coming in as well as hear it. If it's like this for people imagine what it does to the marine life.
Same here in Thanet. We've had a number of unscreened spills in to the sea resulting in prohibitions from entering the sea or even the high tide point on the beach.
It happened once during summer and people were allowed in the sea for close to two weeks. Aside from the obvious environmental damage it was detrimental to local businesses who rely on summer income.
Excellent video. It’s heartbreaking. It would be great if everyone engaged with politics, their MPs, local councillors to try and get this changed
its getting people to understand that civic duty is more than a comment on facebook, people put up with shit in streams but cancel strickly and theres a national out cry, the politicans have everyone so down trodden that theyll just take it these days
The regulator is powerless because of a lack of investment in the Environment Agency by the Tory governments. Time they went. But companies are companies and they need tightly regulating. Well done Rob for highlighting the issue.
Sunak has also just appointed the husband of an Anglian Water executive as our Environment Secretary
@@johnners911 it goes from bad to worse. Can’t wait for Sunak to go
This is just disgraceful this government does not give one about this country they are more interested in what they can take from it.
The tories get donations from water companies plus the environment minister is married to the head of anglian water. so until the tories are kicked out then this will carry on.
Pre privatisation water companies used to run public tours of their waste water treatment works (sewage works) so people could have what was going on there explained to them, I guess it was seen as part of being accountable when they were publicly owned - I went on one of these tours back in the day (infrastructure geek). haven't seen any similar tours taking place recently... makes you wonder if the companies aren't proud about what they're doing there anymore.
They still do
@@johnredfern1973 Cant find any near me - and I used to be able to.
Can see tours of disused Bazalgette era pumping stations in London but I don't think that counts, though I'm sure it's still interesting.
@@johnredfern1973 lol that's an outright lie, none of the water companies do this in the west midlands or north of london.
It's essentially impossible to re-nationalise the water industry, the govenment couldn't afford to buy all the companies back.
I sure hope that this once-beautiful and healthy river is cleaned up one day! It's an incredible tragedy, disgrace and deep shame on England that the river is in the current shape it's in!
Thank you for the video, just found your channel yesterday and I am learning so much!
Never vote for a political party that doesn't have a commitment to renationalising - and that actually includes Labour now.
Sorry i could not be with you on the day but pleased my footage was of use to you. Very good video Rob and thanks for highlighting as issue i have been working on for over 15 years.
How the UK has been failing nature and it's environment....so very sad.
I guess if parliament would care more and work more for the people vs the companies killing and polluting the planet.
Keep it up gals and guys. Hope you folks and others keep doing good work and try and fix the mess.
Doesn't the UK have an *Environmental Protection Agency* ??? Even in Flint, Michigan water has been remediated, and is drinkable (unless one still has lead pipes.). Thanks for all of your work!
Unfortunately corrupt governments like to sell every publicly own owned enterprise in the name of privatisation for a short term windfall. Then wash their hands of it when shit hits the fans..
Politicians, the lowest in the bottom feeder ranking..
Sunak has just appointed the husband of an Anglian Water executive as our Environment Secretary. Go figure.
A comparison to Flint doesn't really work. All UK tap water is drinkable, its some of the cleanest tao water in the world. Its also not pumped full of fluoride unlike a lot of US water.
How is that not illegal in the UK? I'm from Canada and dumping raw sewage like that isn very much strictly banned
It is illegal but not being enforced by the government apart from occasional fines which mean nothing to the water companies because their profits are so huge.
Access to clean water is a birthright. I’m wondering if the govt should be challenged in court for failing to protect its citizens
British Government will tax people to drive in the outskirts of London but won't tax companies dumping in rivers. 10/10.
Stop paying their water bills untill they do something about the cleaning things up and stop paying the bloody share holders
People are more scared of their credit scores these days.
Thank you for bringing this to light and inspiring me to be more eco-friendly
I'm pleased you've done this video. I'm someone who has highlighted the problems with sewers ever since water was privatised. The lack of investment and lack of care about what is effectively toxic waste tipping into our rivers and seas is evident everywhere.
You mention hourly sewer discharge rates - figures gained from water companies own data. What it fails to tell us is how many litres that is.
I can help! I monitor local overflows and an average sized one (one metal grate, not 3 like in your video) near me discharges around 1 cubic metre of sewage every 4 seconds. The water companies mention overflowing for hours...
Thank you very much for exposing this problem!
Money grab, grab, grab, grab, grab, grab.
Thank you for this vlog. What a tragic, disgusting, embarrassing and totally avoidable situation to find ourselves in 2023. What are the government and the Environment Agency doing to allow this constant law breaking. The management and directors should be prosecuted and face imprisonment for this and then it would stop overnight .
You are so right to point out the fundamental flaw of privatisation of essential services. These industries will be put under the control of “tech savvy entrepreneurs” who “stimulate innovation and growth”. When in reality, all they do is gut the service down to the bones, deliver the bare minimum to their customers, and therefore deliver record profits to their shareholders. Like you said, these shareholders often don’t care at all with what actually happens with these services because they don’t have to use them and as long as they see the money flowing into their accounts, they are happy. Meanwhile it’s the taxpayer who has to suffer under the mess that they create, provide the funding for their “innovation”, and eventually bail them out when their unsustainable business practices go bust. It’s cruel and sickening. Love your videos❤
*These companies are not doing what you pay them to do.* Make utilities public again!
I would just block those outlets. It would cause outrage, but that's the point.
It would flood people's homes....
On the news a couple of years ago there was a CEO’s assistant, or she was something like that, explaining to the public why her boss deserved the 3 million pound bonus that year, in spite of hose pipe bans and crumbling infrastructure. The only defence she gave for him , was that normally he would be getting 6 million, and as a bit of a punishment he would only get half that this year. Gosh I bet he was sobbing all the way to the bank. It needs to be where people can be held accountable, and that is back in the hands of government. Definitely something to push as the elections get nearer I think. Thank you for your wonderful channel, you are doing a great job 😊👍
They're now pushing the boundaries further to make sure he gets that other 3 million, and more.
@@johnners911 🥺😳🙄
3 million wouldnt get you a km of new pipe today. These are massive companies handling billions of £s of infrastructure projects each years. If you want a half decent ceo you need to pay them well.
Yes thers problems and sewer overflowing is disgraceful, yet its still the government that controls and approves the funding, not the companies themselves.
@@quillo2747 you can defend this CEO and water company all you like, the fact is that sewage is being pumped into our rivers, killing all life in them , and the elections are this year and we need to make it an issue with ourMP’s and our votes .
@@quillo2747 there is no defence for this, wether you think £3million is a drop in the ocean or nor ,( no pun intended), however you make a good point about the government, there needs to be a charge in attitude, and it’s not going to come from a money driven political party. I understand that we unfortunately have a world run on a money system, and that some will take advantage of this to the detriment of others and the environment, it’s called greed. This needs to stop, it’s all so shortsighted. There needs to be a better balance between the economy and a planet where we can exist in harmony with our environment.
The local water company slogan: Water For Life.
The irony is that our rivers are dead.
Yup sounds about right
@@LeaveCurious YT removed my comment, it was a link to the Australian company that owns Southern water. I wonder why it was repeatedly removed
I live locally to this; it is downright shameful and depressing how this news turned out, I feel even more resentment toward the government for doing very little/nothing about it.
What the hell is wrong with water companies in the UK....all I hear is they are constantly dumping sewage I to rivers...why the hell isn't anyone doing something about it ..
Love your activism. I am very grateful for you mentioning the failings of privatisation and the lack of public framework and investment. It was a great video in my opinion even though its subject was grim
Before privitisation in the 70s and 80s we were making progress with cleaning our rivers and beaches, i remember reports that the river Don near where i live was no longer a dead river and was recovering, we seem to have gone backwards. I think it would be incredibly expensive to re nationalise as we would have to buy back all those peoples shares some of which would be small share holders, and the cost would make it prohibitive what i do think we should do instead is make the laws stronger to insist on investment and punish wrong doings and to make sure those laws are enforced more effectively. The government could also give funding to organisations to mitigate pollution by planting reeds and other plants that help absorb pollution and by restoring eco systems to make them more resilient to pollution. The Yorkshire Wildlife Park has the river Torne running through it and natural wetlands as well, and they have done a great deal to restore the environment by planting reeds and plants in the river and wetlands and trees along the river banks. There is an abundance of natural wildlife to be seen using the area, they have also build a large freshwater lake which attracts yet more wildlife. They have also improved the woodland areas in the park by planting natural plants and putting up bird boxes and bug hotels. They also have a wild meadow area.
Water companies invest far more today than ever happened when nationalised. Leakage is 1/10th today what is was when nationalised.
The companies make money via building infrastructure, not customer bills. They have an incentive to repair and build new. Its the government that approves and funds those projects, its the government that has underfunded. The government controls and funds what gets built, if the government isn't doing a good job today, why on earth would you think it would be better nationalised.
The HS2 disaster is an example of a fully government controlled project. Meanwhile united utilities has tunneled under the lake district for a new aqueduct and spent exactly what they said they would and from start to end it only took a couple of years. HS2 is 5x over budget, a decade delayed and now less than half the original scope.
Excellent video and coverage. This is a much needed matter of awareness.
It certainly won't be a Conversative government that "steps up". I'm honestly not sure, if they were presented with the ability to do so, a labour government would either. I suspect the conversation is short -
Government : "we can take the waterways back into public ownership if we significantly raise taxes"
Voters : "If you do that, I'll vote for the other people".
Fantastic video my friend, keep up the good work. Just reading the comments here ive realised it's not just a British problem, it a worldwide problem, which to me is absolutely shocking ! We need more people like you. Thank you.
Just imagine how much feces and trash 7+ billion humans produce every day.
Great video for bringing attention to this!
Cant believe doesnt have a million+ subs, amazing quality. Thank you brother. I work in animal rehabilitation and see a ton of public/government failings also, so its always interesting to see it through other domains also.
Great video! Privatisation is absolutely disgusting in every sector of our country
Hope this goes viral, re-nationalise seems to be the only answer, but def along with some legal punishments
Renationalisation would be expensive to the point that I don't see any government, present or future, committing to it. I hope I'm wrong..
If there was political will to actually enforce the law, the worst offending water companies would go insolvent. The government could then step in to reinstate proper water authorities whose remit was water provision and environmental protection rather than dividends.
@@IanPhillipsWildlifeit doesn’t need to be expensive, these companies are in tons of debt. Politicians were saying “we need to compensate the shareholders if we nationalise!”. Compensate what? They’re up to their eyeballs in debt! They are worthless. They should be forced to cap customer bills and once bankrupt taken by the government with 0 compensation
Agree. Or fine the board executives directly. Fining the company just knocks back on to the consumer.
@@OllieTastersall I’m no expert but I believe directors can only be prosecuted if they have defrauded the company.
Neither the government, nor private organizations should be in control. The water should be in the hands of the public. You know, the ones who are paying the price in more ways than one.
It's not just rivers - Lake Windermere had raw sewage discharged into it on up to 70 days in 2022 so poisoning one of the uk's most popular tourist destinations and home to a unique fish as well as all the businesses that rely on the reputation of the Lake District.
I appreciate you even making this video, As an angler ive seen this happening for years aswell as the impact of it, Not enough people speak of it or let it be known...
Thank you for making this video. The fate of our rivers and our health should never be in the hands of billionaires who can't be bothered.
We had a similar problem with overflow where I live in Canada. Every time it rained, our river would be overwhelmed with sewage cause the old system couldn't handle it anymore. We ended up building a giant underground tank to allow for more storage for the sewage, so it overflows into that, instead of right into the river.
Disgusting. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I thought this kind of thing was outlawed?. Here in Sheffield, we have the river Don, and several other rivers. The Don, has been cleaned up, or so they say, since the steel works closed down. Trout and otters are said to be back. When the steelworks were open, the warmer water, supported some exotic plants and trees, that shouldn't have been there. But, now the steelworks are no more, these plants and trees, are now gone. Everything boils down to greed and money. What is more important than our environment?. No morals, no scruples.. The water companies should have never been privatised. It has caused so many problems in other areas too. The Road to hell song comes to mind. Water is a a natural necessity for, all living things. It is a crime, that we have to pay for it. Water is a gift. The government and authorities do more harm than good. Without our sacred environment, none of us would exist. Thank you for all the good you do.
All them fish passes they put in don and yet they pollute it with shite! Can’t make it up can you! I personally think don is going backwards. Used to often see trout topping but you look now and I know when I’ve looked you don’t see many.
By fixing the fines at a value (that can be budgeted for by cost effective managers under pressure) the UK regulatory system has (accidentally?) legitimised a pay-off scheme for pollution. (The same has been true in all areas of pollution managed by fixed penalties, for years.) For example, the EA were only allowed to fine up to £250k for water offences.
Thanks to widespread public support, via petitions and engagement in public consultation, the EA have been granted powers for unlimited fines! Keep up the good work spreading the news of their spreading the poos! 😂❤
We ought to do an 'Erin Brockovich' and get the owners to take a dip?? See what their reaction is.....
You're right, this is criminal!
Omg. I'm shocked ! ... we in canada ( a much larger country) have delt with this sewer issue in the metropolitan areas to date. I'm not currently up to date on this matter but, I'm shocked that ENGLAND will allow this . Omg. In canada.. the financial penalties towards these companies would force them to seek other options. I wish you luck.
No wonder they state to not eat the fresh water fish.
Again.. good luck.
Respectfully Robert MacDonald Wildlife control service Canada 🇨🇦
What do they use as an alternative over in Canada?
Yea these are tough videos to watch and worse for you to make but you're right, needs to put out there time and time again. It's ultimately the greatest feat of a wildlife conservationist, to spread awareness. Keep it up big dawg ❤
This is so sickening! When I was a kid my brother and I used to catch crayfish in that river and we regularly ate rainbow trout from it too. Not only poisoning our rivers, coastline and food sources but making us pay for it too.. WTVF??
This is my hometown and I can confirm that the river is grim, thanks for highlighting this
More power to you!!!
The more people that see the complete disregard decision makers have on the our living environment the better.
You are doing a fantastic job in highlighting issues that really matter to our everyday, the benefits of being surrounded by healthy land, rivers and seas are immense.
Whilst I broadly agree with the content here, I feel its worth mentioning the water companies are facing moving goalposts due to house building constantly increasing the front end loading on the systems. It doesn't help with people switching to artifical grasses and extended drivers which increase surface run off in wet weather, along with increased rain due to climate change.
So yes the water companies are the bad guys, but actually everyone in society needs to be conscious of the wider problems too
Yeah thats a very good point. Its a very complex issue. But its unforgivable that theres been such little investment since privatisation.
@LeaveCurious Yes, it's a real shame. Having worked for both government departments and for Welsh Water though, I actually have more faith in the water company changing and improving than I believe taking it under government (incompetent) control would do. Some of the most committed environmentalists I know are now working in the industry and I do feel they are being changed from within and developing strong environmental leaders That said, there is absolutely a historic failure in investment in infrastructure which they are now fighting a losing battle in.
For me, the solution would be to issue very highly scrutinised grants to the water companies for those improvements, with a team of eco-warriors to be checking every detail, and ensuring they got delivered and if they didnt, the water company would be forced to be pay. That would likely have a greater chance of delivering the changes we need.
@@youcouldbesohappy whilst I understand many of your points the main reason given for privatisation was that the improvements in infrastructure were too expensive for the government and so private profit-making companies would be able to invest much more .
However the opposite appears to be true in most regions
While the housing industry is also partly responsible ( that's why the proposal of allowing them to pollute more is so ridiculous) you must bear in mind that most of this pollution comes from raw untreated sewage, this is meant to be an emergency measure during storms to avoid backflow, this companies do it near all the time because it's cheaper than upgrading and maintaining the infrastructure, moving goalposts aren't a problem for them
Yes, I think we've gone from one group not investing to another group still not investing enough. This does make me wonder what spurred Dwr Cymru into adopting a not-for-profit model in 2001?
I worry that a re-nationalism would just result in the whole machine falling to pieces and the industry being pulled from side to side by the Etonites in Whitehall (as with other government owned utilities!)
Ultimately I think better leadership, and a focus on "doughnut economics" is needed in the water industry rather than nationalisation but that's just the one opinion.
Here in the Netherlands we have a government controlled sewage treatment, but it is still worthless in terms of pollution. A recent report noted that rivers and small lakes are even polluted worse as it was expected, in many cases it is even dangerous to swim in those waters, but people are oblivious to the danger and they swim in it anyway. A couple of years ago an investigative TV journalist found out that the people from the sewage treatment plant do test for certain substances in the water that has been treated, but their tests only cover a certain amount of substances. They purposely do not test for a certain amount of other very toxic substances. When they were asked about that by the TV journalist why they do not test for all the toxic substances that are possibly still in the water after treatment of the water, the people from the water treatment plant started a circle reasoning that made no sense at all. They said that they do not know that there are other toxic substances in the water after the treatment of the water, and if they do not know that there are still toxic substances in the treated water their conclusion is that they also do not have to test for it. Because they say that they do not know what they do not know. It sounds absurd, and it is absurd, but this was their real answer. It really made the steam coming from my ears. To this date nothing has changed. And the pollution continues.
However, we do see a similar thing going on with our electrical grid. It was privatized about a decade ago or so, and now we learn that the capacity from the grid is no longer sufficient enough. And it is so bad that starting new companies were already turned down by the electrical company for their application from their new building to be connected to the grid. The private companies just have not invested anything enough to keep the grid up to modern day specifications. Now they want to let people with solar panels pay more for their connection to the grid, because the electrical companies are blaming the people with solar panels for the capacity issues with the grid.
I mean, it is absurd because it was a problem that could have been avoided easily because it was a well known fact to anyone that more and more people are installing solar panels. And that was not something that happened over a single night. But the companies just let it happen, then it becomes a serious national problem, and then the government has to step in, and guess who is going to pay to fix it? That's right, the people. And the shareholders from the companies have a bigger profit because they do not have to pay for the capacity imrpovements.
Of course a big 👍
thanks for making this video pal, you are doing amazing work!!!
Thank you for sharing this. One of my passions. I hate it with a passion.
The question begs to be asked, although it’s not to defend water companies for pumping other crap into rivers and thus into the sea - who flushes tampons, condom and nappies down the loo? I mean really?
The People do it. They are ignorant and lazy...
The thing about companies not investing back into what they do and instead trying to maximise profit for themselves seems to be happening in every industry worldwide now. Scary implications for the future.
The same story of privatization here in the UK. Again and again. If the NHS goes, I think I will seriously consider moving...
There seems to be this taboo in conservation and nature media when it comes to what should be done, its always full of vague sentiments of 'be more environmentally friendly' and 'we all have to pull together and do something' (looking at you BBC documentaries), very rarely do they blame those in charge and the systems in place for the mess that they have caused. I really like that youre doing these kinds of videos, and blaming privatisation for it, though i think it would be doing a disservice to not mention the torys, at least you could say that water systems were privatised by the tories, we need to start blaming those who are really at fault here,
This should be the highlight comment
Absolutely disgusting god people are disappointing I'm glad you are making people aware of the issues I actually hope to own a large property in New Zealand and rewild it myself there's lots of amazing species here in New Zealand and there are also small predators that kill off many native birds so it'll have to be predator free to be a wildlife haven but I'm also quite into hunting as well so there's an issue with game animal management here so it'll be good to amke an example of a healthy ecosystem with lots of native wildlife with deer living healthy and have minimal effect on the ecosystem along with larger and stronger stags love the content keep doing what you are doing.
Sorry for the enormous message.😅
Great video, thank you. I was a bit confused about this issue but you have cleared up a lot and deepened my understanding.
Your lovely Video was so interesting & one to be proud of! I liked the mention of the Meridian Line Sean. 😊
First
That was fast!! 🥇
@@LeaveCurious as always. Consistent champ😊