Untreated sewage dumped into England rivers and seas doubles in 2023 

This is disgusting. But it just about sums up a country where nothing works properly and where greed is rampant. Sad and shameful.

Get them to pay back the 60 billion they took out in dividends over the last 30 years before they put our bills up

This is privatisation in action.

Britain... prices like Switzerland, sewage like Albania...

Open sewer Britain. Brown flag beaches. What a way to run a country.

Feargal Sharkey is absolutely 100% spot-on. Hold the water companies and shareholders responsible. It's completely absurd that water should be a privatized utility.

Do the Tories actually do anything? They seem to be extremely good at doing absolutely sweet F.A

It’s an absolute disgrace

Take Action. Refuse/Delay paying your water bill. Get off your knees.

I don't get it people should be going to prison not getting a massive bonus and a gentle slap on the wrist . PRIVATISATION IS GREAT WORKS EVERY TIME FOR SHARE HOLDERS AND GOVERNMENT BACKHANDERS.

The less they treat sewage the bigger the profits and dividends...

We have been paying water bills since They have been privatised and they have done nothing with the money what we paid them apart from paying the shareholders. They should have their license took off and put back into public.hand

Well, start to cut and clawback the millions paid in bonuses to the incompetent ceos and shareholders and sack them all.

It's nothing new, 30 years ago my daughter then a toddler became very ill after paddling in the sea at Porthmadog. When we go to Bangor hospital she was put on a drip, a Doctor asked if she had been in the sea, there were other victims. Back then sewage in seas and rivers was lack of investment, today it's pure greed.

Change the law, the fine is so small. I know someone who works in industrial cleanup and the water discharge is a loophole. They even fitted early warning alarms for them but now they just dump when those go off instead of being reactive with tanking it out which is expensive. Criminals.

disgusting!!!!!!

Didn't have this problem a few years back!!.

Wake up people, stop paying for water bills. You are not contractually obliged to pay these greedy corporate businesses, who obviously don't look after the environment, they just look after their own pockets. If you haven't signed on the dotted line, which none of us have done, then you don't owe them a penny.

EU has the strictest water purity laws in the world. Must be one of the laws the UK scrapped when they took back control

Water companies are squeezing profits and not investing. The goverment / regulators dont do anything. And expect them to act responsibly. Disgusting.

The fix to this is to increase bills and pay shareholders more

Thank you for covering this

Why didn’t channel 4 push back on WHY failing water companies are PAYING OUT RECORD PROFITS at the expense of environmental collapse???? Come on man PUSH BACK!

Another Tory caused issue to add the many.

25 extra years to fix the problem that he claims we have been dealing with for 60 years and he personally has been working on for five years so far and it's only got worse. Hope he remembered that at current rates, there could be extra 25 million people in the UK in 25 years. Thats more than 2 times the current entire population of London sewage that we will need to treat and dispose of EVERY DAY. But they have planned for all of that right?

the only swimming i will do is in the swimming pool, the water companies should be in prison

Private Water Companies 1989: "What a shambles nationalized water is. Give this to us, we'll put it right. We're super efficient!" Private Water Companies 2024: "Give us more money or we'll kill all the rivers."

the Conservative Government with Thatcher sold England's ' water by the 1989 Water Act it raised £7.63 Billion for the Treasury. Thames Water alone ( worst job I ever had!) has paid out £7.2 Billion sin dividends since then. In 2016 98.5% beaches passed minimum EU standards . How many today?

They really don't care.

Bet the CEOs got healthy bonuses and eye watering pensions!!! All while MPs looked away!!

Same with the energy companies, we've all been paying higher taxes and higher bills for the sake of future, greener energy. Now they want more? Bring the full force of the law, and apply it fully. Where's our money? Why aren't these people in prison? Why is the government not fully supporting and funding the watchdogs? How is it that we have all just been turned into cash-cows for the greedy, lazy elite?

Now the English can't make fun of the Ganges River.

Put Feargal Sharkey in charge. Sorted.

Privately owned utility businesses and their regulators seem to be partnerships. That would explain this sort of problem.

Companies that provide any type of public service should by law be made to provide an adequate service to the public, with any maintenance or repairs being paid for out of profits before any dividends are paid to shareholders.

We have enviromental laws. Why aren't water company exec's being prosecuted? If i dump rubbish i would be prosecuted

You can re-use that and serve it as British food, nobody will notice the difference.

i live in a state with a main waterway that used to catch fire annually, so i can't point fingers, but--well, i think you fellas ought not to accept this. love always, the Americans

**me cancelling my water direct debit**

Why would we sell off our water supply to foreign companies?

Good old Feargal

Keep going Fergal !!!

this is totally unacceptable . Needs to be fix immediately

4:25 record rainfall!? Stop spraying the fookin skies then!

The Water Regulator stated today "That Water Bills have been too low, and because of this, did not Allow? Water Companies, to Invest in its Infrastructure"

Tory Brexit dividends!

This shows the water authority have failed. On Good Friday the south west say our reservoirs are nearly full. Nearly, after all the rain we have had, this is crazy. In the west the authority has stopped for many years the clearing of streams and other smaller water ways which feed our reservoirs to save money for the shareholders. This means instead of filling reservoirs and catchment tanks it is overflowing into our drainage systems. Purely the incompetence of the authorities which must be in breach of their regulations. In the UK our rainfall if managed correctly is sufficient for the manageable population. If population rises over this figure, that is the failure of governments.

'...but no-one was available'. But there's never anyone available when there are awkward questions to be answered! Basic #1 corporate image survival techniques!

They’re all just talking. NOTHING is ever done except protecting companies. The public is only ever an afterthought.

I use to be on the board for a water company for a fairly big city here in Sweden 30 years ago. We almost had no houses with combined sewer and rain water pipes and it was high priority to find and fix them. I was just single houses built very long time ago but fixing this was a priority. Overflow by rainstorms was never a problem but the cost and effort to clean also rainwater is high and you are not having a system that can focus on maximise cleaning...but hansle overflows. To have any spill of any spill of sewer water shoukd be seen as exceptional and a catastrophic event. Not in Britain???

The companies have their priorities backwards when they care more about shareholders than the environment. What a disgrace, those profits should be spent on cleaning up the damage they’ve inflicted on the environment. They shouldn’t be allowed to operate or claim any profits until they do. If we don’t bring companies to account this will only get worse and there won’t be a world worth living in.

Private making a fortune, then public will pickup the bill.

We pay for this ? I complained but was put on a carrousel ride !! Stop Charging for Shat service ,

STOP VOTING TORIES

World class, again. Put Mr Sharkey in charge, if he'll accept...

HERE WE GO....You should have voted Corbyn!

The money has gone on profits and dividends, instead of infrastructure

This the tory legacy..corruption and compliance..

Feargal sharkey, well said! We’ve all been taken for a big expensive ride. Only the shareholders are happy. Make them pay. We already have but have in our high bills since privatisation of water!

Privatisation of all the essential industries has been an abject disaster. Anything short of full renationalisation would be shameful.

Nationalise nationalise. These privateers have taken out more dividends than actually investing in the country.

The Government- "Damn you Mother Nature". Pathetic.

The spokesman said this problem has been with us for sixty years and No government has sorted this out. Well 35 years ago they privatised the water to raise investment to do just that. But little work on infrastructure whilst 6 billion paid out to shareholders. The Tories have cut regulations. Cut funding to the Environment Agency. Remember Liz Truss was head of the EA which showed how she cares for people. Cut inspections not just on sewage but on farm discharges. (15 years ago a farm could expect to be inspected once every two years. Now it’s down to once in over 200 years! At a time when animals are being put into giant sheds and their waste finding its way into rivers. And it’s the same with industrial discharges) So privatisation, deregulation, paying bonuses based on share dividends instead of performance has all led to this. But they (politicians, companies executives and shareholders) don’t care. They get richer and fly abroad to swim in the Caribbean, they aren’t swimming amongst the sh£& on our beaches. 🤬🤬

Truss let the UK sewage works owned by Indian companies drop their standards -for money to the Tories.

Wild swimming anyone or how about some Gastroenteritis.

As a chairman of a sewer authority in Pennsylvania, I can see a few sides in this. One is the reporters, one is the general public being concern, Greens flipping in GLEE over this, the companies getting marching orders from stock holders, the stock holders, the enforcement agency, the elected officials , and the customers. 1. enforcement agency my have reduced fines or gave none for a plan to invest to solve the problem, I have seen it work over here in the US. 2. elected officials, what can I say to help get me elected again. 3. customers- still screwed even if the stock holders are forced to pay the 71 billion pounds in dividends they got since the 1980's.4 Reporters- this is great for a story and lets try to make someone slip up. 5 stock holders- forget any dividends or the stock price. 6 general public- just remember people are cowards and they will try to pass this hot potato along and hope that you forget. 7. the Greens, never let an opportunity to make a name for yourself go to waste and if it solved quickly it is an opportunity lost

Cant recall having this issue before brexit.

If the water companies spent some of the money they collect in bills rather than overpaying board members and holding onto profit to boost their share prices, we'd have less pollution and a healthier ecogolical environment.

Minister, have we also decided that investments and loans taken on by water companies won't be handed out as dividends to shareholders or excessive bonuses to executives any more. The "criminal" diversion of investment over many years is basically the cause of the current woeful performance of these companies.

Like our water bills.sic.corruption here almost has bad has gov

Just tell the water company’s that you no longer put your waste water or toilet waste down there drains and that you put it in drums and tip it into the sea and rivers so do not bill me for it .And when the water company’s get fined why don’t the people who pay water bills get a rebate on there bill instead

I recall this logic during President Trump's tenure. "We are only seeing so much covid because we're testing so much" lol

Criminals poisoning our rivers, our streets, our people, evil is killing this land

Breeeeexit !!!

All these new visitors building up the all the shi*****

Pity Channel 4 is the only DECENT TV broadcaster in the UK.

It’s just not acceptable and disgraceful . Maybe stop paying our water bill until they sort the problem out. I’ll bet it would be done ASAP

The UK never stops surprising us ! The UK has pledged almost £12 billion in overall support to Ukraine since February 2022, of which £7.1 billion is for military assistance. £2.3 billion was provided in each of the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24 and on 12 January 2024, the Government announced a further £2.5 billion of funding for 2024/25......

What hilarious is that all these water companies, combined with all the other things we have to pay hard earned money for. And not the water companies nor our government can get there s**t together. But they certainly are efficient at taking our money.

I remember years ago our beaches were the worst in Europe and they had a massive clean up campaign and they improved. But in the last decade or so we have literally gone back and past square one!!!! They have paid billions in dividends for years and here we are.

Let’s face it England , you get what you pay for. Back in the 70s / 80s it was well known that our water system needed investment but neither party were able to because of the English pathological obsession with low taxation and not investing in our future. If Labour had funded long term Government investment then the Tories would have accused them of not being able to manage public finances and raising taxes. The Tories scammed us with the idea that privatisation would solve the problem and New Labour ( and Blair ) failed to call it out for fear of a reaction from the electorate. We are a divided nation where our two party system encourages warfare rather than long term cooperation. Our basic systems of water / rail / roads / NHS / education have pathetically become political footballs. Proportional Representation forces parties to cooperate and work together. Other countries like Germany / France / Holland do far better than us on their infrastructure because they don’t fight each other over certain issues and they understand the “ you get what you pay for “ principle. In reality it’s up to us. We need an election where all of us refuse to vote until they change the system. There are people in this country who will spend their whole lives voting but their vote will never make any difference ( due to living in a “ safe seat “ area) . Change our voting system and you will change the face of this country forever. We need to figure out a way of working together to solve these LONG term issues and have the guts to pay for them. Short term Party politics have got us into this mess , they won’t get us out of it

Fergal Sharkey is correct

Only happened when we left the EU.. funny that?

Do you think a million extra adults every 2 years might have something to do with it?

That's what happens when Thames Water is no longer owned by British.

A good spokesperson for the British public these days is a brilliant find

Keegan, Minister MP wife of the Fujitsu UK Chief during the Postmasters scandal. The same people keep cropping up, or their relatives.

Brexshit

We have to stop these private companies from stripping profits over what they are actually meant to be doing!

My parents were like “we just flicked it out the way” they seem to believe that it is acceptable

And the tories have a nerve to add green taxes to the working class in the name of being "green"

Failure of privatisation as with trains, fuel, utilities get them all renationalised

Every British utility company in 2024: well yes we're in a recession and cost of living crisis, and yes our bills are insanely high, and yes we have billions in profit a year, but we simply don't have enough to do any of the things we said we would, so we need to raise the bills more to do these things (we promise we actually will this time, u can trust us) What a well run country we live in

It’s almost as though Tory promises don’t mean jack isn’t it?

Get these tories out. The water should have never been privatised in the first place. Thatcher is responsible for most of the country’s problems.

Saying that successive govts. have failed to sort this out may be true, but wasn't the water privatised??? Wtf does privatisation mean, if not taking over the running of the industry? This is a sad and unfunny joke

"Maybe you should focus on getting your current assets working properly". Was the content of an email response back in 2014 by an Australian Engineer on secondment to the privatised water company that took over North East Water. It was in response to the "Vision of the future with Water Factories generating energy from waste and feeding the electricity and gas grid with huge potential profits" By that stage the Australian Engineer with 30 years of experience in wastewater management was fed up with the distractions and diversions and excuses and was ready to go home. He was a troublemaker in any case. He had the temerity to insist that essential works necessary to maintain systems were implemented. Kept raving on about stupid things like responsibility and integrity. 10 Years on.. What were you expecting? Little note to Phillip. Australia has storm events too. We rarely have spill overs as we installed a series of emergency storages to cope. You are being told a pack of lies.

My dream is to one day visit the English Lake district and swim in the open water. Does this means it is no longer safe?

The U.K. could do away with 50% of its sewerage systems in housing areas. Open bottom soakaways are the answer. Set to a certain depth within the boundaries of each property. This works very well in many countries and is no harm to anyone.

Blue skies sun glissens on the river but a breeze tells one the air is not quite right, from a pole or pipe comes this murky trail of greyish water mixing with the blue sea gulls fighting to pick up floating human body waste, this is my towns promenade once the towns pride to walk along walking, this is at high tide, but when the tide goes out the beach is covered in off white gunge of stains, where once one bathed and could watch silver paper slowly float to the bottom clear enough to depth of four foot, sad days are hear. For our next generation.