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Now we can see how dangerous Thatcher's great water robbery really was

SO now it’s official — parts of England are experiencing a drought.

The national drought group comprising representatives of the Environment Agency, the water companies, the Civil Service and the National Farmers Union among others, has declared an emergency in whole regions of England, with the requisite bodies in Scotland and Wales likely to follow suit.

The prolonged dry spell has left river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels abnormally low. In this second stage of a water crisis, some regional monopolies can now drastically extend restrictions on the use of water from taps and hosepipes for a wide range of purposes.

If these are not effective and the rain fails to fall, the next stage will be “severe drought” with draconian measures to conserve and ration the elixir of life. The most recent survey by the centre for ecology and hydrology indicates that drought conditions are likely to last until October.

But what this crisis also highlights is the chaotic and corrupt nature of England’s privatised water system.

For instance, as the GMB union has pointed out, dozens of English reservoirs have been sold off or closed in the past 30 years — some because of obsolescence — without a single new one built to replace them.

Belatedly, new ones are planned and we can expect calls on consumers and taxpayers to foot some or most of the bill.

Even the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express have quoted the scathing comments of Andrew Sells, former chief of Natural England, about the water companies that “in abandoning this critical infrastructure, without any replacements, they have again put short-term profits ahead of long-term water supply.”

It’s a similar tale of criminal neglect when it comes to rotting pipelines, wasteful leakages and noxious pollution.

Every day in England and Wales, 3 billion litres of drinking water — equivalent to 900 Olympic-size swimming pools — escapes through leakages, one-quarter of the supply. Last year, the water companies spent almost 3 million hours discharging raw sewage into the rivers on 372,533 occasions. The puny and ineffective penalties when caught are, for the polluters, a price worth paying.

At the same time, the regional water monopolies hand over £2bn a year to shareholders and million-plus salaries and bonuses to boardroom bosses.

Dividends have totalled £72bn since privatisation of the water and sewage industry in 1989, plenty to help fund the investment in infrastructure and technology promised yet never delivered.

Instead, much of the declining investment has been financed by debt, rising from nil when in public ownership to £53bn today, costing more than £1bn a year in interest.

Customers’ bills have risen by 40 per cent in real terms.

This great water robbery has been overseen by Ofwat and the Environment Agency, the toothless watchdogs set up supposedly to protect the interests of consumers and the environment.

Like the regulatory arrangements in other privatised sectors, the Ofwat regime is a farce, a fraud and a fig leaf for greedy profiteering.

Such a vital industry must be taken out of the hands of its British, Malaysian, Canadian and Australian owners and restored to public ownership.

By most yardsticks, the not-for-profit water companies in Scotland and Wales are ahead of their English comparators, although water-rich Dwr Cymru has to charge higher bills while supplying cheaper water to England. Under public ownership, vast capital projects are underway in Australia and China to build a national water grid.

According to pressure group We Own It, 235 towns and cities around the globe have taken back ownership and control of their water and sewage services since the turn of the century.

It’s time for Keir Starmer to catch up with public opinion in Britain and the world.

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