Ark – devizine.com

On the eighth day of raw sewage gushing out of overflow drains into the River Kennet at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve near Marlborough, like a gigantic diarrhoea-infected Oliver Reed relieving himself from the effects of a Special Brew and chlorinated chicken festival into the Buxton Spring, Thames Water has done 100% naff all, nada, and Danny Kruger, the local MP for the party who allowed this to happen, met ARK, a charity for the Rivers Trust for the Kennet catchment area, for a pre-election photo opportunity. The day after, today, no action has been reported to have taken place; let the poo flow free……

Yeah, Danny went onto his Facebook page to express his outrage, despite being one of the majority of Conservative MPs who, in October of 2021, voted with the House of Lords to reject amendments to reduce sewage pollution, basically allowing water companies to take whatever action they feel like when addressing the amount of raw sewage being dumped into our rivers, effectively passing the buck onto renowned callous profit-making private water companies. Surprised, given baby-faced Danny supported Prime Minister Boris Johnson when Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an inquiry to find out if Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a party during lockdown at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s house?! Still the irony escapes Tory voters….

In a 2021 press release from ARK about the stripping out of the amendment in the Environment Bill, they said, “ARK and many other eNGOs are extremely disappointed by this result, as the government’s current plans, such as Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs), to address the issue do not compel water companies to take immediate action to tackle sewage pollution, meaning the state of our rivers could continue to decline indefinitely. DWMPs do not explicitly require the improvement of sewage infrastructure, nor do they require a reduction in the harm caused by sewage pollution. DWMP’s are also temporary. Whilst the current Ministers and Water Companies have the shared goal of eliminating the harm caused by storm overflows, there is nothing to say future incumbents will have the same view. Placing this duty on the face of the Environment Bill through this amendment will put it beyond legal doubt that it is the responsibility of all stakeholders to tackle sewage pollution.”

And here we are in reality, after a minor storm, raw sewage pouring into the Kennet, at Stonebridge, AND since New Year’s Eve, continuous discharging from Fyfield Sewage Treatment Works, and they’re continuing; I’ve seen prettier festival toilets. Widely reported as being one of the worst offenders of the new lack of regulations, Thames Water don’t hide it, in fact, after appointing a new CEO with a salary of £850,000, they say they “want to be open and transparent about our storm discharge activity,” and provide an interactive disaster area map, for all to see just how, quite literally, shit the situation is.

Here’s a map of all the outstanding issues of leaking drains Thames Water still hasn’t dealt with, provided by Thames Water themselves!

While we wait in hope, and poop, our local MP might pop back into his constituency once in a while, and tell us of any reply from his letter to Thames Water, I spoke to Peter Force Jones, True & Fair Party candidate for East Wiltshire, asking him where he thinks the blame for this shitshow should lie. “Thames water must take huge amount of blame here,” he expressed, “it’s clear they have continued to pay out massive salaries to those at the top, and are more than happy to mount up debts and pay out dividends despite failing to invest anywhere near adequately enough to update what is still often Victorian age infrastructure.”

Though Peter was adamant that equally was the government’s responsibility to, “put in tough and enforceable legislation (fully empowering regulators) to ensure water companies work hard to quickly see such overflows become a thing of the past. The other problems I currently see are MPs voting down sensible measures that could help, the Environmental Agency seeing a large exodus of experienced staff due to poor wages, and ill-equipped to take meaningful action against water companies. Also, a lack of consideration of capacity of sewers when some new developments are allowed, and sometimes the locations of these.”

Mr Jones also pointed to privatisation, or more accurately, the arrival of private sector monopolies, saying, “given we as consumers have no choice in the matter has not materially helped. Whilst the current government weren’t the ones who did this, they must still take responsibility for core basic services that everyone relies upon.” But, but, but Danny K visited Ark yesterday for a photo opportunity, isn’t this enough action from the government for you, Peter, or am I taking the piss?! After all, there’s plenty to take, a nearby river full of it. Least perhaps we should consider this come general election time. They’re trying to control shipping in the Red Sea, they can’t even control a popped drain cover in the Kennet.