Sewage in Our Waters - Talk at LSE – Thursday 26th September 2024

One of the (many) things I love about London, is the fact there are so many FREE things to do; whether they be intellectually stimulating or hedonistic, there’s something to suit all tastes!

When it comes to the former, the big Universities host many free talks open to the public, and the London School of Economics (LSE) does a better job of it than perhaps all the rest.
As you no doubt know, the UK is a proper sh!t show at the moment, quite literally. Our privatised water and sewage system is a global disgrace, with water companies pumping sewage into our rivers on a regular basis, because it’s much cheaper to do that than invest in the infrastructure needed to treat the waste. I mean, obviously a private company is interested in extracting as much profit as possible with the least amount of expenditure! Which is why essential public services should never be sold off!!

Anyway, this was a great talk, and I actually found myself siding with the guy who represented the Water Companies, which was a shock to the system!
The fact of the matter is, we’re in the situation we’re in, and all the people that designed and profited from this ludicrous situation have long since laughed all the way to the bank, with their bags of cash. A different set of people are now in charge, and punishing them will do no good.
I don’t see why there’s never any accountability or persecution of corrupt officials; it seems as though you can embezzle as much as you want, and then resign and you get to keep all your ill-gotten gains; whereas if Joe Public so much as tweets in the wrong direction, he’s carted off to prison! British society is thoroughly anti-revolutionary; they moan and complain in pubs, but do nothing to hold the authorities to account; meanwhile continuing to deteriorate as a society, and blaming migrants for everything that’s wrong in the world!

Where were we?
Oh yeah, water.
So apparently the gold-standard when it comes to water and sewage treatment, is Denmark. Their water waste is separated at source into three different pipes: one for rain, one for domestic water waste, and another for sewage. A great system, but their water bills are twice those in the UK. The guy representing the Water Companies made the point that if you want a world-class system, you have to pay for it.

The problem is, we have been paying for it, and our system is atrocious! What needs to happen is renationalisation AND investment in infrastructure. Unfortunately, what WILL happen is, our water bills will continue to rise, and our infrastructure will continue to decline, until some eventual future government will be forced to deal with it.

Welcome to life in the UK. Seriously folks, who wants to meet me in Dover and get a dinghy to France?