Joe Lycett vs Sewage: Whistleblower reveals sewer networks held together with 'sticky tape and plasticine' in new Channel 4 documentary

A new Channel 4 documentary is airing tomorrow night (Tuesday 20 February) at 9pm where Joe Lycett will take on the UK’s water companies, investigating how our waterways have become so polluted and why firms have been allowed to taint one of our most precious resources. The comedian speaks to a whistle-blower at a major UK water and sewerage company who lifts the lid on the current “dilapidated” state of the sewage treatment network and confirms that wastewater workers are incentivised not to report sewage spills.

The whistle-blower has worked in wastewater for 15 years and reveals that some wastewater works “haven’t had any investment since the 1950s”, describing them as “absolutely dilapidated and falling apart; held together with sticky tape and plasticine”. He reveals that sewage spills typically occur as a result of mechanical breakdowns which he attributes to lack of investment and upkeep, and he previously operated a large works which was putting in excess of 7 million litres of untreated sewage into local rivers every time it rained.

The whistle-blower reveals that spills are not always reported, explaining: “Absolutely not. I've seen managers who go quicker up the greasy pole if they nod and agree and don't report what they should report. And those who don't make any trouble will soon be at the top of the ladder.” They also add that when it comes to reporting spills: “There's a bit of a toxic environment, and a lot of managers have been looking to blame the person who's reported it.”

And he adds that there are financial incentives not to report spills, explaining: “Bonuses can be linked to spills. So the more spills reported, the less bonus you're likely to get. And for senior managers who will get much bigger bonuses the incentives will be much bigger.”   

In the documentary, Joe also discovers that the Church of England’s pension fund has up to £32 million worth of holdings in water companies – including shares that return dividends. The Church of England has previously disinvested from oil and gas companies like Shell over environmental concerns, so Joe implores them to do the same with water companies. In response to this, the Church of England’s Pension Board said they were not going to disinvest but said “we view that progress and improvements are possible”. 

Joe explores in the documentary the seemingly revolving-door relationship between water companies and regulator, Ofwat. For example, Cathryn Ross, former co-chief executive of Thames Water, used to be the boss at regulator Ofwat.

His documentary, titled 'Joe Lycett Vs Sewage', comes after damning statistics and a boycott growing in the UK where people are refusing to pay the sewage element of their water bills due to sewage spills. Recently it was revealed that only 14% of English rivers meet "good" ecological status with sewage pollution a major contributor. In 2022, water companies in England alone were responsible for 301,091 sewage overflows, for a total of 1,754,921 hours.

As part of the documentary, Joe has launched a social media campaign for the general public to support the ‘poo promise’ by emailing their water company to call on them to stop paying dividends to shareholders. Over 20,000 people have emailed their water companies as part of the campaign - and there were over 100 emails a minute at one stage.

In response to findings in the programme, Water UK said: “Companies have set out proposals for a record £96 billion of investment, to ensure the security of our water supply in the future and reduce spills into rivers and seas as fast as possible.” The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it is “driving the largest infrastructure programme in water company history to upgrade the network,” and is bringing in “significantly more Environment Agency inspections and spot-checks.” 

The Environment Agency said it “takes the management of conflicts of interest very seriously” and has “systems in place to manage and monitor these” and that none of its most senior staff have an interest in a water company. While Ofwat said that “employees ‘intending to leave’ are removed from projects where there is the ‘potential for a conflict of interest’.”