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Professor John Robertson OBA
Today in the Guardian, the above headline and:
South West Water is being taken to court over a parasite that infected the water supply in parts of Devon last summer and left dozens sick. More than 140 people were confirmed to have the diarrhoea-type disease, which also causes stomach pains and vomiting, typically lasting for about two weeks. Four people were hospitalised at the time. About 16,000 households and businesses in the Brixham area were told by the water company not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling it first.
On 26 May 2024, in the Guardian, we saw:
Thames Water has sent samples of water for lab testing after dozens of people reported becoming unwell with stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea in south-east London. Earlier this month, unsafe drinking water led to more than 100 cases of a waterborne disease in Devon, with people asked to boil their water because of contamination fears.
After cryptosporidium, a disease that can cause symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting, was detected in the water supply in the Brixham area of Devon 10 days ago, 17,000 households and businesses were told by South West Water not to use their tap water for drinking without boiling and cooling it first.
Now residents in Beckenham have reported being struck by a stomach bug which is causing days of vomiting and diarrhoea. They include a four-year-old boy suffering days of vomiting, and an adult woman who was so unwell she went to hospital with stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration.
Only a few weeks earlier, the BBC reported of millions of litres of untreated sewage illegally pumped into the beautiful Lake Windermere. BBC Cumbria reported that the firm responsible, United Utilities did not monitor the volume of untreated sewage they pumped into the lake! The following day they paid out £340 million to investors and we read that their CE gets a base (sic) salary of £690 000 and a bonus of up to £900 000. [i]
Two weeks ago, a Swale Dale farmer, was furious after contaminated floodwater killed 30 of his sheep.[ii] Yorkshire Water’s boss didn’t take her £800 000 bonus last year due to ‘public anger over sewage in rivers’. [iii]
In March, the Oxford boat race team claimed their defeat was, in part, due to sickness caused by ‘poo in the water’. E-coli bacteria had been found in the water before the race, yet the Cambridge cox was ceremonially chucked in the river Thames after victory. Thames Water is in crisis, seeking a massive Government bailout, deeply ironic in the context of a boat race. Thames Water typically pays its CE’s £750 000 per year plus bonuses and ‘golden hellos’, in the millions. [iv]
Surely the incoming Labour government will save the good folk of England from diarrhoea and poo in the water?
In 2023, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that nationalising water companies was ‘no longer on the agenda.’[v] Sir Keir Starmer is saying nothing, again.
Scotland too can have problems with water. Sometimes flood drains overflow when rainfall is too heavy for them to cope, and untreated sewage does end up in rivers and the sea. Not all overflows are monitored. However, try searching for evidence of poisoning from Scotland’s water supplies and you will find only ‘potentially toxic forever chemicals’, traces of human medicines such as ibuprofen, an ‘oily taste’ in the water of Uist and Benbecula, last year, and one case, still unresolved from 2009 of cattle poisoning in Stornoway. [vi]
How is this possible?
Scottish Water has always been under state-control. It pays moderate salaries and bonuses and no shareholder dividends. According to SEPA in 2024, 98% of Scotland’s bathing waters are safe to swim in [vii] and 99% of drinking water samples pass all tests. [viii]
[i] https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13427025/Another-stink-United-Utilities-Water-giant-pays-340m-dividend-Windermere-sewage-scandal.html
[ii] https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/24299224.farmer-lost-30-sheep-suspected-river-swale-poisoning/
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/11/yorkshire-water-bosss-decision-to-forgo-bonus-labelled-hollow-by-union#:~:text=So%2C%20on%20behalf%20of%20Yorkshire,of%20her%20%C2%A3574%2C000%20salary.
[iv] https://www.ft.com/content/279eede4-01f3-4189-aca9-2904e07e9eaa
[v] https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-reverses-pledge-nationalise-energy-water-mail-general-election-2194125
[vi] https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/24109632.cattle-poisoning-case-returns-scottish-high-court/
[vii] https://media.sepa.org.uk/media-releases/2023/98-of-scottish-bathing-waters-continue-to-meet-strict-environmental-standards/
[viii] https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/-/media/ScottishWater/Document-Hub/Factsheets-and-Leaflets/Factsheets/021122SWWaterQuality2022.pdf
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
you simply cannot dump raw sewage into your surface waters every day and not get these results. I am surprised there haven’t been more serious disease outbreaks.
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Indeed. That is why they do waste-water surveillance. This will often show up the presence of a pathogen before the disease it causes is found in people. For example, Sars-Cov2 and polio.
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Ah but…. we wur tellt when Mrs Thatcher privatised water that the private owners would invest in infrastructure and water purification procedures because the ‘harsh winds of competition’ would force them to offer customers a good product or the customers would transfer to another company.
The media and profiteers did not point out that each water company had a local monopoly.
Ah, but …we wur tellt that OfWat would monitor things rigorously and impose fines on poor service. The companies just added the cost of fines on to prices and continued to make profits.
Scottish Water is deemed ‘bad’ by the Labour Party and the media, because it is Scottish, it is publicly owned, has invested in infrastructure and flood protection, and, despite heavier rainfall than the rest of the UK, discharges overflow into rivers far less than in England.
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London water is recycled. London water is rubbish.
Scottish pure water the best in the world. Exported around the world.
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It tastes like it’s already been through multiple kidneys
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Urgh, they probs all buy bottled water from Scotland and Wales. I see tourists in Edinburgh buying bittled water, sometimes carrying loads out of the shops, I am soo temepted to say Scotalnd’s water is clean and drinkable. They obviously believe Scotland has effluent in drinking water like they do in England, that’s the meedja’s message I’m sure, England=UK, Britain = UKI.
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Great title, reads like a poem lol!
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To be fair John, boil notices have been issued in Scotland when an issue arises, but E-coli and Crypto are rare, despite years of bullshit since Sarah Smith’s time at the BBC and her “troubled QEUH” campaign.
If you note the crucial highlight “a parasite that infected the water supply in parts of Devon last summer” – There are parts of Devon which have had continuous hosepipe bans in place for at least the last 3 years, they’ve drained the well dry and they’re into the bacterial soup levels – The hot air has already hit the fan in southern england, the shit went somewhere else, hence WM playing the distraction game by building reservoirs with no source supplies, anybody remember ‘Failing Grayling” ?
Crypto and E-coli have rarely turned up in Scotland and are often a very localised issue Such as cows shitting on a faulty air-valve after the lid got a dunt in a field – An immediate boil notice and crypto/E-coli earning was issued when the AV blew, just in case microbes etc had sneaked past 5 bar of water coming the other way…. Had to stifle a laugh at the time, but the lads ensured consumers were never off-line with a big fn hammer reseating the AV, but the boil notice stayed for 24 hours because of the physical disturbance…
The above is example of why you are only part correct in citing public ownership of SW as important, it’s a community thing – Let’s not lose the significance of the skilled workforce and the policing side never having been put under political ‘control’, and a community which would have flattened you had you tried – SG gave free reign to all to do their jobs, internal to SW, SEPA, and the public – There was no series of Tory chancers more interested in ‘business’, leaning on them in Scotland – The mind boggles at the induced terror of Thames Water’s CEO being leaned on by Therese Coffey drawing on her favoured cigar… – I suspect she’d be encased in concrete with adorations of keep left signs had she tried that shit in Scotland….
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