It's bloody annoying. We are paying for our sewage to be treated, not pumped raw into our rivers.
Back in the 80's and 90's, and possibly before then, companies were forced by the Environment Agency to clean up their discharges into rivers. After years of pollutants entering and killing the eco-systems that rendered most rivers dead, they had to clean up their acts, at whatever cost it took, so the rivers could return to their natural state and be appreciated and enjoyed by the public.
It was seen as selfish a company could ruin a river so they could save a few bob without any regard to the impact it would have on the wildlife downstream, and while the companies huffed and puffed and complained about the cost, they did what they were told, and the quality of our rivers and beaches improved.
I'm at a loss to understand what's going on now. After decades of reading those glossy pamphlets from United Utilities when the bill arrives in the post, stating how wonderful they have been in cleaning everything up, spending millions on this and that, it's been nothing but a whitewash and utter rubbish.
Everything in the UK is going backwards at the moment, and the fact our rivers are returning to the same levels of pollution last seen in the 50's and 60's is completely at odds with everything they have been telling us.
It would be interesting to see how much has been paid out in director salaries and shareholder bonuses since the water companies were privatised. I'm guessing it's probably in the billions. Whatever the figure is, it's probaly a lot more than the investment in treatment facilities required to keep our rivers clean.
30 years or so ago, companies were forced to clean up their acts, and I have difficulty comprehending it's now water companies buggering up our eco-systems for the sake of profit when they have been telling us for years how wonderful they have been.
What are we paying our sewerage charges for? Well, nothing it would seem, other than it being trousered by some corpulant twat and their friends.
