Thames Water is ‘killing our rivers’ and making children sick ‘every week’ from paddling, say activists

Thames Water has been accused of “killing” the UK’s “precious rivers” and causing children to be sick from paddling on a weekly basis due to sewage spills.

The Henley Mermaids, a campaign group made up of five middle-aged women who share a passion for river swimming, are demanding that the “whole system needs to change” and the public “need to take back control of our water”.

Mermaid and Green councillor Jo Robb said: “Every week we get reports of children being sick from paddling in the River Thames.

“This is Britain, a G7 economy in 2023 and children can’t paddle in our rivers in a heatwave without being sick from sewage. It’s a total disgrace.”

The campaign group said that outgoing CEO of Thames Water Sarah Bentley “failed to make any real inroads” to address the scale of sewage dumping and made “a big song and dance about not taking a bonus”, yet was still paid £1.5 million.

Now the UK government is reportedly drawing up emergency contingency plans to temporarily bring Thames Water back into public hands as its debt pile has reached a mammoth £14 billion.

Ministers are said to be in talks about the possibility of emergency nationalisation of the water company under a so-called special administration regime (SAR).

Thames Water is the UK’s biggest water supplier providing services for 15 million people in London and the South East, and is reportedly racing to raise £1 billion from investors to shore up its finances.

The Henley Mermaids listed all the failures of the water company including leaking pipework and failing infrastructure and warned the next CEO will inherit this while the taxpayers will continue having to fund the firm’s failings.

The Mermaids said: “Whoever takes over from Sarah Bentley will inherit a company saddled with debt and lumbered with failing infrastructure: pipework that leaks a third of its water and a crumbling sewage treatment network that discharges raw sewage into our rivers for thousands of hours a year All the while, foreign shareholders are raking in the cash.”

“Whoever takes over will be paid a fortune while it’s us bill payers who will be expected to fund upgrades to Thames Water’s infrastructure. We’ll be the ones swimming in rivers flowing with sewage and will living with hosepipe bans while Thames loses a third of its water to its own leaks. dumping the issue.”

Member of The Henley Mermaids Laura Reineke said the River Evenlode is “nearing the point of no return thanks to Thames Water’s sewage” with habitats and fish “being destroyed for profit”.

Mark Barrow, an underwater filmmaker at Beneath British Waters who films the scale of sewage pollution in UK rivers, told NationalWorld  that Thames Water “the company now facing insolvency” had billions stripped out in dividends by investors in recent years, 25% of water lost each year in leaks, and 68,000 hrs of raw sewage discharged last year into Thames.

He said: “ The whole thing stinks but why was this allowed to happen at the cost of the environment. It would seem that in these times it is impossible to just do what is right.”