A letter from a correspondent:

Dear Owl,

“ I wouldn’t go in there;  a couple of weeks ago I developed a blistering rash all over my arms after going in the water; my colleague got sick after going in and had to have antibiotics.  We have all been ill as a result of going in the water.”  This was an RNLI lifeguard’s account of the harm that the polluted seas are causing him and his colleagues as told to me this week as I walked along the beach, unable to go for a swim because of yet another illegal sewage spill caused by SWW. At least two reported sewage spills caused by South West Water have taken place this week on Exmouth beach alone according  to Surfers Against Sewage. 

On Tuesday 10^th September the whole of the south coast and many other coastlines around the country had sewage alerts according to the Surfers Against Sewage website.  The rainfall was not unexpected or exceptional but as we know,  water companies abuse the sewage overflow permit system to  release millions of gallons of untreated sewage into our seas and rivers.

South Water levy the highest water rates in the country on its customers; its infrastructure project plans are little more than aspirational nonsense with targets for delivery constantly missed – it is one of the worst companies for failing to meet its infrastructure projects deadlines -unlike the huge bosses’ pay packets, business acquisitions and generous dividend payments which appear right on time.  The pension funds who invest in the water industry and the bosses have had their cake and everyone else’s so it is time for them to put and shut up and for the government to restore faith in its ability to look after the little people whose businesses are going under and  whose communities are dying on their feet because holidaymakers are literally sick of swimming in polluted water.

The Government is in crisis on many fronts. It could start to earn the trust and respect of its electorate by tackling the environmental vandalism wrought by years of water privatisation. The answer to the ongoing environmental and economic catastrophe caused by the years of underinvestment and greedy grab for profits by the privatised water industry is to put them into administration and if necessary renationalise the industry. .  It is time that Keir Starmer searches down the back of his sofa for that moral compass that he wielded to such great effect when defending two environmental activists in the MacDonalds libel case forty years ago and in later years as an outstanding  DPP. It is his decision ultimately to bring the water industry into administration and so help to save our coastal communities, our environment and marine life and to protect the health of people who want to enjoy our lovely beaches and seas and of those who keep us safe at sea. 

Twenty years ago David Attenborough on a Planet Earth programme about the oceans, stated that we have the power to choose whether to protect or destroy the oceans.  We are running out of time and we need decisive government action now to help nature recover and in the process protect our fishing industry, our marine life and our coastal communities.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Wilcox