A new government white paper on the water sector, which claims to be about “real accountability“, completely fails to grasp any of the issues that actually matter.

The paper sets out the government’s plans for reform of the water sector and the wider water system. Given the abject failure of water company after water company, it’s about time the government tried to do something.

Do we need a science teacher?

The plans outline £16bn of investment in storm overflows and in reducing phosphorus, which will reduce the impact of the climate crisis on the environment.

The climate crisis causes changes to weather patterns – primarily precipitation. This means there is more surface runoff and soil erosion, which transports phosphorus into waterways. Additionally, rising water temperatures and drought are causing pollutants to concentrate in small bodies of water. This is causing rapid, uncontrolled growth of algae, known as algal blooms.

Does Keir Starmer think the climate crisis magically drops phosphorus particles into rivers?

It’s a shame that the government didn’t consider reducing the actual causes of the climate crisis – mainly fossil fuels, deforestation, transportation, and overconsumption- and thereby reduce the amount of phosphorus in our waterways.

Instead, they are throwing £5bn down the toilet to upgrade treatment works to remove it manually. What fucking idiot came up with that? Oh yeah…

The plans are part of a wider programme to protect UK rivers. Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s largest ever donation came from a:

Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund with shares worth hundreds of millions of pounds in fossil fuels, private health firms, arms manufacturers and asset managers.

That shows you how much they really care about the environment.

What really matters?

With all South East Water’s (SEW) recent fuck ups, you’d expect the paper to address some of the issues worrying consumers. For example, will water companies actually be held to account?

And whilst the paper states:

We will give the new water regulator the power to act more quickly against companies who are not complying with drinking water regulations, including the ability to impose financial penalties rather than take them to court.

Ofwat actually already has this power. It can fine companies up to 10% of their annual turnover if it decides they have broken their license.

Notably, though, the 52-page document only mentions ‘fines’ once. So I’m not sure how much “real accountability” this exercise really involves.

The document also fails to mention how the current privatised system is screwing over regular people. From massively increased bills to going weeks without water to not being able to swim at Britain’s beaches, it appears there is not a single part of Britain’s waterways that private firms have not fucked up.

The white paper obviously mentions water companies polluting our waterways – and Labour did make pollution cover-ups a criminal offence. However, what it fails to grasp is that water companies are systematically exploiting a system which enables them to make millions in profit every year. And as usual, the public is paying the price.

The real issue is a system designed to create profit for shareholders rather than to provide high-quality, clean water. Until the government fixes that – nothing will actually change, and this paper is not worth the trees they cut down to print it.

Featured image via the Canary

By HG

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