IT was the middle of the night — nearer three in the morning in fact - when I was woken from my slumbers by the sound of thunder and bright flashes of lightning combined with the lovely sound of huge walnuts of raindrops knocking on the windows.

I’d left the bedroom windows wide open to combat the heavy heat of the day but it was still uncomfortably hot and sweaty so the storm was a refreshing blessing — like manna from heaven indeed. Both I and my parched garden simply needed the rain, and the more the better.

I little realised just what a terrible effect all that rain would have nationwide nor that it would introduce a brand new word into my vocabulary.

Did you know that Germany had voted “shitstorm” as their favourite new English word for 2021? Nor did I.

As all that storm water flushed down our gutters and drains it would lead, not just to floods but to huge quantities of raw sewage being swept along to be released on too many British beaches and holiday resorts as well as many of our rivers and estuaries.

We saw pollution warnings in place at nearly 50 previously popular swimming spots in England and Wales.

It seemed that once again the return of heavy rain in parts of Britain has overwhelmed the sewage system – much of it still as it was built by the Victorians. This meant untreated wastewater is being released into the sea. In many places this wastewater carried with it unprocessed human sewage – a real shitstorm indeed.

The south-west and south coast of England were the worst affected, according to those true environmental heroes in the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS).

The surfers based their view on official data from the massive, but irresponsible, water companies.

Water companies are already facing increased scrutiny during a period of drought with some companies bringing in hosepipe bans.

Yet only last month the Tory-supporting Times newspaper reported that the country’s nine largest water companies are leaking almost 2.4 billion litres (roughly 13.3 million full bath tubs) of water every day, while still rewarding chief executives and senior staff with large bonuses.

No wonder we have seen growing public outrage in recent years at the volume of raw or partially treated sewage pumped into Britain’s rivers and coastal waters.

The government faced a backlash last year over new legislation governing water quality. Ministers were forced to U-turn after rejecting an amendment to the Environment Bill which would force water companies to stop allowing untreated sewage to enter British waterways.

Water companies are permitted to discharge untreated sewage into rivers only in exceptional circumstances, such as during heavy rainfall.

My nocturnal storm and the return of other downpours put pressure on the sewage system because the hard sun-baked dry ground is unable to absorb the water as quickly. This also explains why we have seen flash floods in various parts of the country including in London and other big cities.

Water companies claim only a small percentage of the discharge is wastewater or sewage.

Wild and sea swimmers along with surfers would argue. They claim it isn’t hard to find yourself swimming through a trail of unprocessed human sewage, turds, toilet paper and sanitary products.

Swimmers have been advised against bathing at seven beaches in Cornwall, four in Devon, five in Dorset, nine in Sussex, three on the Isle of Wight and three in Essex which were also hit by shitstorms of sewage.

Elsewhere, there were warnings in Lincolnshire, Cumbria, Lancashire and South Wales, as well as two inland wild swimming spots near Bristol and near Minehead in Somerset.

Hugo Tagholm, the chief executive of surfers’ group SAS, Tweeted: “The shitstorm after the calm. Many south coast beaches off limits due to @SouthernWater sewage discharges.”

In a report published in July, the Environment Agency said water company bosses should face jail for the worst pollution incidents, describing performance in 2021 as the “worst we have seen for years.”

An Environment Agency spokesperson told us: “The current risk of surface water flooding reinforces the need for robust action from water companies to reduce discharges from storm overflows. We are monitoring the current situation and supporting local authorities where needed.”

A spokesperson for Southern Water tried to defend the Water Company’s position: “Yesterday’s thunder storms brought heavy rain which fell on to parched ground and couldn’t absorb surface run-off, meaning that more rain than usual overwhelmed our network.”

At times of heavy rainfall, all water companies use storm overflows as a relief valve on our sewer network. Such discharges should only happen with both permission and scrutiny from the Environment Agency.

Of course, the only way we can expect to control any of the big utility companies – water or energy – is by bringing them under public ownership, by renationalising them.

Ironically, when they were sold off many ended up in the hands of nationalised companies in countries like France and Italy.     

Even Labour Party leader Keir Starmer wants water supply to be run by what he describes as “common ownership.”

Nationalising utilities had been a popular key plank of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party policy during his time as leader.

His aim was to bring the water service back in-house after what he said had been years of failures despite tens of millions wasted on excessive pay rises for executives and dividend payouts to shareholders.

The profit-making companies say the drainage systems are incapable of dealing with the volume of rain that fell in what they described as “major incident” — a rain storm.

The vast water companies have a monopoly. We can’t choose to go to another company if their service is crap as so often it is.

They have been failing to produce a reliable service for more than three decades and despite all the nonsense pushed out about the beauty of the capitalist market economy you can’t have another tap with another company’s water in your kitchen or shower.

The existing companies clearly haven’t invested anywhere near enough in infrastructure. Meanwhile, fat cat executives, board members and shareholders are creaming off the money that should be spent improving services.

After recent flash floods in parts of London like Chalk Farm, Primrose Hill, Belsize Park, Swiss Cottage and Hampstead, Thames Water said it was powerless to stop the damage caused by these flash floods claiming that the drainage systems are incapable of dealing with the volume of rain that fell.

It’s outrageous that people can make such disgusting profits out of a necessity as basic as water and basic sanitary provisions. Their leaking mains and Victorian drains simply can’t cope with heavy rain or my middle of the night thunder — or should that be — shitstorm?