Water companies in England have been pumping raw sewage into rivers and the sea for decades. The latest excuse is the wet weather. These privatised water companies have been paying their directors huge salaries and neglecting to spend money on updating the infrastructure.
This year’s boat race on the river Thames has come with a health warning. Dangerous levels of ecoli have been detected. The university boat crews have been advised to stay out of the water. The traditional tossing of the Cox into the river at the end of the race will have to be cancelled.
In Northern Ireland the Blackwater river was blocked with fallen trees and foliage after recent storms. Neither the Rivers Agency nor the Environment Department accepts any responsibility for clearing the blockage. It has been left to volunteers to remove the natural detritus and the pollution.
Anglers have been monitoring rivers for some years and reporting on the worrying decline in our rivers’ health and the effect on fish and the food chain. Activists like the singer Fearghal Sharkey are trying to get harsher penalties for the polluters, including the water companies, but at the moment they find it more rewarding to carry on polluting and risk smallish fines if they get caught.
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