Olsen Lecture review: Watershed moment in campaign for cleaner rivers 

Written by Simon Greaves, Court Member of the Guild of St Bride

Feargal Sharkey, the environmental activist, used his platform at this year’s Tom Olsen Lecture at St Bride’s to make another impassioned appeal in his high-profile campaign for cleaner water in Britain with a further call for a clear improvement in the way the industry’s beleaguered companies operate and are regulated.

The former front man of 1970s rock band The Undertones has been front and centre of a six-year campaign to improve the quality until reforms are made by government, the regulator and companies.

He was speaking in the week that industry regulator Ofwat was publishing a consultation paper on its draft price control determinations for the water sector.

Sharkey says all Britain’s rivers are polluted. Among measures he wishes to see adopted is a complete ban on the production and sale of wet wipes which clog domestic drainage and sewage systems. A ‘wet wipe island’ the size of two tennis courts appeared on London’s Thames river last year. Wet wipes also constitute nearly 90 per cent of the materials contained in ‘fat bergs’, build-ups of grease and household waste that can block sewers.

Sharkey said that he was surprised that the water quality debate had become a general election issue, but  claimed that consumers had been betrayed by water companies, the industry becoming “a legitimised rip-off”. He said it had become “financially bankrupt, environmentally bankrupt and morally bankrupt as an industry”.

He said that London and the south-east of England was on the cusp of running out of water, a situation that would focus people’s minds because as well as being alongside a lack of strategic planning or investment for the delivery of a functioning sewage system, the same greed and profiteering was behind London’s clean water supply. He claimed about 25 million people were potentially 10 to 15 years away from having no water.

This, he said, was down to a lack of strategic or regulatory oversight and water companies gaming the system for their own benefit. There were estimates of £60bn to secure the capital’s water supply, while London was number nine on the list of cities most likely to run out of water, along with Cape Town, Jakarta, San Paulo and Mexico City, he added.

He said of Thames Water: “It’s clearly a company that’s out of control, debts have gone up again – they’re over £15bn – and clearly it’s a company that’s going to need restructuring.” He said at least half the industry needed financial restructuring as a result of underinvestment since privatisation 33 years ago.

In a question and answer session after the talk, Nick Measham – chief executive at independent charity WildFish – commenting ahead of Ofwat’s announcement about how water companies will fund and run their businesses, said: “For far too long, water companies’ investors and bosses have reaped the rewards of failed regulation. Now we all need to pay the price – either through increased bills or taxation.

“Polluted rivers and water shortages are now a grim reality in this country. If the cost of water remains as low as it is today, and given where past failures in regulation have left us, there simply won’t be enough money to future-proof our water system so that it can supply enough to drink, treat our sewage and protect the environment.

 “We should all get used to investing in new reservoirs, water reuse and desalination, to stop our rivers from being bled dry in a drought and in building infrastructure to protect them from being flooded with sewage.”

He added: “But consumer water bills should rise only to pay for the future, not the mismanagement of the past. Fixing the water companies’ past failures to comply with the law and plan for the future must, as far as possible, be paid for by the industry.

“It’s quite simple, the water industry needs to be properly regulated – irrespective of whether or not it remains privatised. We have the law, let’s use it. Let’s have regulators who are prepared to get tough with water companies – both financially and environmentally.”

One thing is clear, we need ambitious targets to deliver the investment our environment needs. Our rivers and wild fish don’t have time.

Thanks go to Feargal Sharkey, Nick Ferrari, and to Kaizo for its continued generous support of the event which ended with a drinks reception.