Channel 4's Dirty Business is a clarion call to nationalise the water industry
5 hours ago
- #water-pollution
- #environmental-activism
- #privatization-scandal
- Heather Maughan, an 8-year-old girl, died in 1999 after contracting E. coli O157 from sewage-polluted seawater in Dawlish Warren, Devon.
- The privatized water industry, established in 1989, has led to record sewage pollution, £60bn in debt, and £78bn in shareholder dividends.
- Surfers Against Sewage campaigned against sewage dumping, leading to improvements via the EU urban wastewater directive, but rivers remain polluted.
- Activists like Peter Hammond and Ash Smith exposed Thames Water's illegal sewage dumping and financial mismanagement, pushing for public control.
- The UK government continues to rely on private investors, despite calls for renationalization to end profit-driven water mismanagement.