Did you know that England is the only country in the world with fully privatised, for-profit water and sewage systems? On an unrelated note, a surf competition came to a screeching halt yesterday when an unexpected poo tsunami hit the once-pristine shoreline – and Feargal Sharkey had something to say:
No doubt @Ofwat will be contacting all of the competitors and teams taking part and explaining to them how they can claim compensation from @SouthWestWater. https://t.co/xtW1vAiQnL
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) September 7, 2025
Oh we do like to be beside the seaside?
As reported by the BBC, Surfing England had organised the event to take place in Porthowan, Cornwall. 140 surfers from around the UK made the trip, but they had to abandon the water when lifeguards raised the red flags, indicating a “sewage discharge”.
CARVE Surfing Magazine documented the unseemly events that followed:
English inter-club contest has been called off because of a sewage dump. lifeguards called everyone out of the water pic.twitter.com/woCHuQplMd
— CARVE Surfing Magazine (@CarveMag) September 7, 2025
We are assuming SWW have released a CSO into the stream pic.twitter.com/7VN0eV4HJa
— CARVE Surfing Magazine (@CarveMag) September 7, 2025
— CARVE Surfing Magazine (@CarveMag) September 7, 2025
As the notice above reads, South West Water (SWW) were responsible for the ‘discharge’ (i.e. the ‘torrents of human waste’). SWW offered the following excuse:
Our storm overflow at Porthtowan activated this morning in line with its permits following heavy rainfall in the area.
Oh, okay, so they had a permit – that’s okay then. Crimes aren’t criminal if the government gives you a license to commit them; they’re simply disgusting and reprehensible.
Hannah Brand (operations manager) of Surfing England said the following:
We were devastated to end the event early, especially with clean three–five foot waves providing perfect competition conditions and with such a high standard of surfing on display from the clubs.
We continue to call on the government to take urgent action on water pollution. Having to cut short such a major event only underlines the importance of ensuring our waters are safe and clean for everyone
Feargal Sharkey (national spokesperson for the Borsetshire Clean Water Action Group) had a lot to say too:
And here I suspect is the culprit Porthtowan sewage pumping station No2, dumps sewage straight into Porthtowan Stream, which runs straight onto Porthtowan beach and straight into the sea.
And we allow these people to get away with this stuff? pic.twitter.com/hmwUSuAtwQ
— Feargal Sharkey (@Feargal_Sharkey) September 7, 2025
Writing for The Countryside Charity, former Undertones singer Sharkey said:
I started getting into politics at 10 years old, and I learned two things: don’t ever be afraid to challenge authority, and don’t be afraid to fight an injustice. But I don’t want to be doing it. I want out as quickly as I can, so I can go back to being an obscure bloke who used to make records.
Feargal Sharkey: filthy England
As reported by the BBC, SWW made the following excuses in the face of Feargal Sharkey’s criticism:
The SWW spokesperson said the company was “serious about tackling storm overflows” and “change of this scale takes time, ambition, and increased investment”.
“We are working hard to actively reduce our use of storm overflows across the region as part of our £3.2bm investment programme,” they added.
‘Wow’, you might think – ‘£3.2bn sounds like a big investment’ – and it is. So why are they having to invest so much money now? Primarily because they’ve avoided spending anything for the past few decades. As We Own It explain:
Privatisation is a legalised scam. Since the 1990s, investment from the privatised English water companies has gone down 15%, and they’ve built up a debt mountain of over £60 billion (paid for by us). Meanwhile, shareholders have extracted more than £85 billion over the last 35 years.
Research shows the cost of bringing water into public ownership could be very low and even zero in some scenarios. In fact, public ownership could save us £3-5 billion a year.
The privatised English water companies pour raw sewage into our rivers and seas, which kills fish and wildlife and makes people ill. A huge amount of water is leaked away every day – nearly a fifth of all water in the network never makes it to our taps. Instead of spending money on infrastructure to tackle sewage and leaks, the water companies prioritise their shareholders. We rely on Ofwat and the under-funded Environment Agency to slap their wrists when it goes wrong.
They also explain why its now only England which is subjected to the water-for-profit mess we find ourselves in:
Margaret Thatcher privatised water in England and Wales in 1989 – she couldn’t get away with it in Scotland so they have publicly-owned Scottish Water. Welsh Water is now a not for profit. England has a unique model of privatisation. We didn’t just give private companies a right to operate, we sold off our assets and infrastructure wholesale.
Duuur-dur
I rewatched Jaws recently, and this scenario reminds me of how the mayor buried his head in the sand after the first shark attack, guaranteeing more shark attacks later. Britain and its politicians are very much in that same mould, except the shark in this scenario is capitalism. Capitalism and shit. All of it stinking to high heaven.
Privatised utilities may cost us billions and produce worse outcomes, but are they at least popular with the public?
It’s time for Labour to re-nationalise our industries and end this mess.
If they don’t, the next poo tsunami will be the one which sweeps them out of office.
Featured image via Rawpixel
