Water Pressure

Sir Hugh Myddelton financed and oversaw the building of an artificial waterway, the New River, to bring fresh water from springs in Hertfordshire to a reservoir in Islington In 1613.

The project was to ensure people in London could access clean drinking water rather than rely on the brackish water of the Thames, so as to improve public health.

It almost didn’t happen: a huge capital input was required before there would be any financial return and the city was reluctant to make this investment. Where have we heard that before?

Pace

Potable water was made available to all. But the River Thames became little more than an open sewer and a public health hazard to Londoners. Between 1848 and 1866 a series of cholera epidemics killed almost 100,000.

In response to this, in 1875, civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette heroically completed a sewerage system for central London which was instrumental in relieving the city of cholera epidemics, while beginning to clean the Thames.

How far we have regressed. How little we have learned from those progressive times.

While science and technology have advanced at an incredible pace since the Enlightenment, corporate greed has dragged us back into a dark age. 

Profits

The owners and shareholders of the utilities that are essential for life have correspondingly put profit over the planet and opened the door to a return of the pestilences of old.

The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is tasked with overseeing the regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales. 

Its role, supposedly, is to ensure that water companies protect and enhance the environment for future generations. 

However, the green light given to the water industry by the last administration to prioritise shareholder profits over the health of rivers and beaches makes clear who really holds power in regulatory decisions.

Salvage

Indeed, regulations passed by the last Conservative government permit water companies to continue discharging sewage into rivers and seas for the next fifteen years. 

Ash Smith, of the group Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), responded to this edict: “The failure of the regulators is now obvious. 

“The reasons why supposedly highly regulated water companies have done so well by exploiting captive bill-payers should, we think, be an important subject for the secretary of state ultimately responsible for the sewage scandal. ‘Regulatory capture’ or worse are obvious features that surely require investigation.”