Again bad news from the privatized water companies in England and Wales.
The BBC reports: Raw sewage is being dumped into London’s rivers from at least 100 homes, a charity has warned. Thames Water’s response to an Environmental Information Request (EIR) from Friends of the River Crane Environment (Force) showed seven blocks of flats in north, north-west and west London had been discharging waste into the rivers Crane and Brent. Ben Morris, founder of the Clean Up the River Brent campaign (Curb), said:
“It’s like going back to the mid-19th Century when there were no water treatment works. We’ve gone back to a time when we’re no longer treating our sewage. We’re just putting it straight in rivers; certainly a proportion of it is no longer being treated at all.”
And at the same time The Guardian reports: “United Utilities refuses to hand over data on sewage discharges into Windermere.Water company claims information is not in the public interest despite widespread pollution of UK waters.” One of the UK’s biggest water companies is fighting a legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District. United Utilities initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at sewage treatment works at the lake “was not environmental information”. It later claimed the information on phosphorus – which can pollute watercourses when at high levels – was “internal communication” and exempt from disclosure.
Once more it is clear that privatized water companies do not care about the nature, the citizens, the laws… All they care about is their own profits. If you want water companies accountable to the citizens and obliged to provide public information, make sure they stay in public ownership and under public control.
