Thames Water: Water firm 'complains' after River Action CEO uses word 's***' in speech to 'sewage industry'

The CEO of campaign group River Action has ridiculed Thames Water on social media after the water firm "complained" that he had used the word "s***" in his speech to the "sewage industry" last week. James Wallace posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the "potty polluter" has "complained" about the "use of foul language".

He added that he would like to "unreservedly not apologise for using the words". Mr Wallace posted on X: "Potty polluter complains about use of FOUL language. Dear @thameswater I’d like to unreservedly NOT apologise for using the words s***, turd, a**, in my speech to the sewage industry last week. Until you stop sh****g in our rivers, we’ll keep saying it how it is: S***".

James Wallace's post on X comes as the charity River Action awaits the judge's verdict on their court case against the Environment Agency (EA) which took place at Cardiff's Civil Justice Centre in February. River Action campaigners accused the EA of not stopping chicken manure polluting the River Wye.

The Wye last year had its status downgraded to "unfavourable", and the rapid expansion of chicken farming in the catchment area was partly blamed. Protestors, including water campaigner and musician Feargal Sharkey, were outside the court on Wednesday 7 February as the case began.

In response to Mr Wallace's tweet on X today (Wednesday 6 March), Feargal said he "doesn't know why" Thames Water are offended "after all what they dump into our rivers". SOS Whitstable, a campaign group putting pressure on Southern water to stop polluting, said on X: "Do you know what offends us? Them running up £18 billion of debt, demanding higher bills and lower fines, pumping massive amounts of sewage into our water and STILL having the cheek to pay themselves huge dividends."

Currently fears are mounting that Thames Water could collapse, costing the taxpayer billions of pounds. According to the Financial Times, officials at Defra have in place contingency plans for Thames Water if it collapses, under the name Project Timber after the water firm announced  last year it was trying to deal with a debt pile of £14bn. 

According to The Telegraph, a group of MPs are pushing for Defra to reveal details of “Project Timber”, and it is understood that Thames Water executives have valued its rescue package at £5bn in talks with the government. When asked about the situation with Thames Water, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister told NationalWorld: "I wouldn't get into speculation or comment on commercial matters." Last year, data revealed by an environmental information request submitted by the Liberal Democrats, showed that Thames Water has pumped at least 72bn litres of sewage into the River Thames since 2020 – roughly equal to 29,000 Olympic swimming pools. Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, told The Guardian that Thames Water should be disbanded and replaced by a “public good company”.

Thames Water declined to comment.