Good morning. Many people, perhaps including you, are gearing up for a long bank holiday weekend somewhere picturesque – maybe at a seaside town or by a nice river in the countryside. The normal stresses of going away aside, there is one other thing that everyone should be looking out for if they plan on going swimming or even paddling in the water: poo.
The government and water companies have faced mounting pressure over the volume of untreated sewage being dumped daily into Britain’s rivers and oceans. The media and the public alike have been causing a stink about the waste that has been thrown into the country’s waterways, seemingly with impunity, for years.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Guardian environment reporter Helena Horton about how things got this way – and what will happen if nothing is done. That’s right after the headlines.
Five big stories
Middle East | Israeli jets hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.
US news | Stormy Daniels has sat down with Piers Morgan in her first major interview since Donald Trump’s indictment and said that while she believes Donald Trump should be held accountable, she doesn’t think his crimes against her “are worthy of incarceration”. She added however that if he is found guilty of his other charges he should go to prison. “The king has been dethroned – he’s no longer untouchable,” the 44-year-old said.
Conservatives | Allies of the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani have voiced concerns of a cover-up of Islamophobia in the party after minister and former chief whip Mark Spencer was cleared of rule-breaking over allegations that he told Ghani that she was sacked because of her Muslim faith.
UK news | John McFall, the lord speaker, has said that the House of Lords needs more independent, expert peers. McFall’s comments come as controversy grows over plans by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to fill the chamber with dozens of political allies and donors.
Coronavirus | Public health bodies in the UK have announced that two doses of a Covid vaccine will be offered to vulnerable children and babies between the ages of six months and four years old from mid-June.
In depth: ‘There needs to be a big enough risk to companies to ensure they do their job’
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How long has this been happening?
You might think that, in the sixth-largest economy in the world, dealing with sewage would be a fairly settled issue. You would be wrong.
While the problem of sewage flowing on to beaches and rivers in England has gained a lot of public attention in the last few years, the issue is nothing new. “It has been happening for a long time,” Helena says, pointing to the fact that it was first brought to light in the 90s by a group of surfers who noticed sewage waste in the sea.
Up until 2016, a lot of the monitoring was done by volunteers: “They would go and stand by their local sewage discharge and then find a river nearby, see if it was pumping out sewage, and then spread that information publicly,” Helena explains. The monitoring process has since become more formalised, with sewage monitors recording levels of waste. By the end of the year there should be monitors at every sewage outflow, giving out real-time information.
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Victorian pipes
There are a number of factors that have converged and created the crisis in Britain’s water. The first, and perhaps most important, is that water companies have cut investment in critical infrastructure, leaving it unable to cope with the country’s growing population. “They always make reference to ‘our Victorian pipes’ as a reason why we have sewage spills,” Helena explains. The centuries-old system cannot handle the amount of sewage that is going down and is easily overwhelmed, even with a small amount of rain. “So then they have to pump it into the river because otherwise it would back up into people’s homes,” Helena says.
For the last three decades, water companies have cut investment in upgrading the wastewater and sewage infrastructure by a fifth, despite increasing water bills by 31% in real terms since the 1990s. The basic logic of privatisation – that profits would be reinvested so that the government would not have to pay out of pocket to keep the system running – is not panning out: the companies have paid billions of pounds in dividends to shareholders instead of stopping leaks and sewage dumping.
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The numbers
The scale of the problem cannot be overstated. In 2021 water companies dumped raw sewage into English rivers 372,533 times. Last year that number reduced by a fifth, to 300,953, but that is still the equivalent of 824 spills a day, all while hundreds of locations still remain unmonitored. Only 14% of rivers are classified as being in “good” ecological condition, and without intervention that number could drop to 6% by 2027. As a result, England is one of the worst places in Europe when it comes to bathing water quality.
The situation elsewhere in the UK is not much better: only 40% of Scotland’s rivers and 45% of those in Wales are good, and in Northern Ireland not a single river got a “good overall status” rating for water quality.
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Regulation
One of the main ways that regulators like Ofwat have been able to police these companies is by dishing out fines. It has the power to charge water companies up to 10% of their annual turnover if they fail to meet guidelines, “but they’ve only done that once in 30 years and that was because of a particularly egregious offence”, Helena says. The government has also flip-flopped on its policy towards fines, initially saying that there would be a £250m cap, but now Thérèse Coffey has said that water companies could face unlimited fines and penalties. This lack of a clear strategy undermines the government and makes it seem as though it is not serious about implementing these sanctions.
Fines only go so far anyway. Since 2015, the Environment Agency (EA) has handed out more than £141m in financial penalties, but this has not seemed to make much of a difference. “Even if you fined them millions of pounds, it would cost a billion pounds in some cases to build a new big sewer under a city, so why would you spend that money when you could just eat the cost of the fine?” Helena asks.
Like many institutions, part of the story behind the EA’s lack of efficiency is austerity measures. Over the last decade, funding for services provided by the EA have been cut by 50%, meaning that it simply does not have the staff or resources to monitor or enforce the rules as diligently as it may want to.
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What will the impact be if no one steps in?
The implications of not immediately dealing with rogue sewage are troubling. The public will not be able to safely use open water in England for recreational purposes without risking infection or disease. Harmful algae bloom will suffocate wildlife and destroy biodiversity. “It’s also disgusting when it’s put in context with the increasing amount of droughts we’re having. Last year, these problems were compounded because there was less water in the rivers to dilute the sewage,” Helena says. With extreme weather conditions induced by the climate crisis becoming more common and the infrastructure only degrading further, the problem will inevitably get worse.
So, can anything be done? There’s always nationalisation – but neither party are keen on that, the Conservatives for ideological reasons and Labour for electoral ones. Some MPs have suggested holding the CEOs of these companies criminally liable for sewage spills, others have called for shareholder payments to be frozen if the companies leak too much sewage. Either way, what is clear is that sanctions need to be tougher – “there needs to be a big enough risk to the company to ensure that they do their job,” Helena says. Otherwise they will keep doing what they’re doing – while the country’s rivers and seas become increasingly unrecognisable and dangerous.
For more from Helena and the Guardian’s environment team, sign up here to receive our climate newsletter, Down to Earth, every Thursday
What else we’ve been reading
The last of the Golden Girls died in 2021, but the death of Betty White has done little to extinguish the enthusiasm still felt for the one-of-a-kind sitcom. That much is evident at the annual Golden-Con, where Nancy Jo Sales joined enthusiasts (above) to explore the enduring popularity of the Emmy-winning series. Toby Moses, head of newsletters
Sam Levin follows the story of a woman who reported sexual abuse by multiple prison guards when she was serving her sentence in California, thinking it would get her the justice that she deserves. Instead, she found herself in an immigration detention centre awaiting deportation to Mexico. Nimo
You may have heard of Naked and Afraid, or Naked Attraction – but what about Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home? Stuart Heritage takes a look at E4’s new reality show, and the recent glut of undressed entertainment on television. Toby
In New South Wales, police claim hip-hop is leading young people to a life of crime. Michael Sun explains how this dated tactic used to whip up moral panic is both dangerous and boring. Nimo
ChatGPT had 100 million users in January. Google and Microsoft will both soon offer some form of similar AI in their search engines: that accounts for 90% of the market, meaning it will be used for billions of pieces of research. But AI is still liable to get things wrong, warns our head of editorial innovation, Chris Moran, and worse than that, it will make up sources for its misinformation – such as Guardian articles that are so convincing even the journalist cited can be tricked into thinking they have written it. Toby
Sport
Football | Frank Lampard has returned to Chelsea as a caretaker manager, and has said that he would consider taking the role on a longer-term basis. His job is to help the team with their struggling Premier League campaign and get them past Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Golf | Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland all made seven-under-par 65s, making it a three-way tie on the opening day of the Masters in Augusta. Rahm managed to recover after a poor opening hole, becoming the standout player of the tournament.
Football | Chloe Kelly sealed England’s victory, 1-1 (England win 4-2 on pens), during a dramatic penalty shootout against Brazil at the first Women’s Finalissima, continuing their unbeaten run to 30 games. While the stakes were not too high, the win was “another test passed, another box ticked off and another crowd-pleasing result,” writes Suzanne Wrack, especially ahead of the World Cup in the summer.
The front pages
The Guardian leads with an exclusive on the calls for more independent, expert peers amid growing controversy over plans by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to pack the chamber with political allies and donors. The top half is given over to the King’s support for research into the royal family’s links to transatlantic slavery. On that topic the Daily Mail goes with the headline “Royals hit by new payout demands over slavery links.”
The Sun and the Mirror fear exceptional Easter getaway gridlock, with “Bad Friday” and “Standstill” headlines respectively. The i looks at pressure to ban smart motoways entirely.
The Times looks ahead to the junior doctors’ strike next week, with “Strike to ‘overwhelm’ A&E”. The Telegraph warns of the potential for unrest in Northern Ireland ahead of Joe Biden’s visit there. The Express has spoken to a defiant Ukrainian ambassador to the UK: “Negotiate! No, we’ll fight Putin to last man.”
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
A Very British Cult (BBC iPlayer)
Journalist Catrin Nye takes us through a careful investigation of the suffering seemingly caused by an organisation known as Lighthouse. One member, “Erin”, had been a victim of child sexual abuse. When she tried to leave, founder Paul Waugh lashed out at her verbally – and she started to believe he was right. A study in the worst of humanity, with glimpses of the best. Lucy Mangan
Music
Blondshell – Blondshell
From Miley Cyrus to Shakira, the relationship revenge fantasy is big business in pop this year. Salad, from Sabrina Teitelbaum’s debut album as Blondshell, is hellbent on a different kind of vengeance, wig-blowing goth-rock that sees the 25-year-old songwriter (above) imagine dispatching a man who transgressed against her friend. It’s the most overtly furious moment on an album that otherwise deals with subtler shades of rage. Laura Snapes
Film
Godland
Harshness is transformed into beauty and then terror by this extraordinary film from Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason about a 19th century Danish pastor sent to establish a new church on Iceland’s remote south-eastern coast. I left the cinema dazed and elated by its artistry – it is breathtaking in its epic scale, magnificent in its comprehension of landscape, and piercingly uncomfortable in its human intimacy and severity. Peter Bradshaw
Podcast
The List of Absolutely Everything That Might Kill You
Widely available, episodes weekly
Fireworks, bees, volcanoes, theme parks … there are many dangers in life. DJ Matt Edmondson and This Is Going to Hurt author Adam Kay’s new podcast explores just how likely some things are to kill you. While Kay has seen a lot of death as a doctor, his co-host has dealt with only a deceased pet rabbit, so the contrast between the two offers up much comedy. Hannah Verdier
Today in Focus
‘Peace babies’ and the birth of the Good Friday agreement
On 10 April 1998, Kerrie Patterson was born in a hospital in Northern Ireland. Her arrival came just minutes after the historic Good Friday agreement was signed in Belfast. Patterson tells Michael Safi about her unique status as a “peace baby” and how her generation has inherited a society that can move beyond the old divisions of Catholic v Protestant and nationalist v unionist.
For Anne Patterson, Kerrie’s mother, peace is a process, not an event. She describes her own childhood, which was marked by proximity to violence, and how it made her determined to give her daughter a life free from the old divisions.
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Twenty-three years ago, the European lobster was classed as “near threatened” due to overfishing. While the population still hasn’t recovered, the practice of “v-notching” vulnerable and important lobsters (such as pregnant berried hens, who can carry up to 20,000 eggs) has allowed the species to recover. V-notching is a conservation method used to help replenish lobster stocks – where fishers mark the tail of the lobster before returning it to the water. Since 2000 the law prohibits landing V-notched lobsters and crayfish in Britain.
To Cornish fisher Ned Bailey, the technique is a means of self-policing, or “offsetting”, the catch he takes out of the sea. “I want there to be a viable lobster fishery when I’m not fishing [any longer],” he says. “My kids, who went to university – and unlike me use their brains more than their hands – should have something left to catch down the line.”
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until Monday.
