It’s time to take back the tap and bring water back into public hands
GMB, the water union, has said the industry is 'rotten’ as Southern Water is fined millions for dumping raw sewage into the sea.
The company has been fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping between 16 and 21 billions of litres of raw sewage into protected seas over several years to avoid costs and penalties.
In 2019, Southern Water agreed to pay a record £126m in fines and payments to customers for “serious failures” in its sewage treatment works and for deliberately misreporting its performance, while Thames water have also received recent fines.
A recent GMB investigation showed the nine privatised water company shareholders made more than £6.8 billion in just five years, while 2.4 billion litres of water was wasted through leaks every single day in England.
Gary Carter, GMB National Officer, said:
“Water bosses and shareholders are trousering fortunes, while billions of gallons leak away and raw sewage is dumped into the sea.
“The industry is rotten and needs to be cleaned up.
“If water barons won’t funnel their monstrous profits into repairing infrastructure and preventing environmental damage, it’s time to take back the tap and bring water back into public hands.”
