We are facing a water crisis in Britain. We are facing a growing water crisis in Europe and a water crisis already faces at least half of the world’s population.
These crises are caused by capitalism, a system that is based on the private ownership of the means of production and which is driven by the need to make a profit for the relatively tiny class of owners through the exploitation of the working class, which comprises the vast majority of the world’s population.
For the capitalist class, everything – including water, the very basic necessity for life – can be turned into a commodity to make a profit.
This universal water crisis is a consequence of under-investment, or no investment by the capitalist class, or by capitalist state, which represents the interest of that class. There is a failure to plan and prepare for the future. The crisis is being exacerbated by the global impact of climate change.
In the UK our rivers, streams, lakes and seas are an open cess pit, filled with untreated human and animal waste on an unimaginable scale, threatening our health and the environment, and seeping into the groundwater from which about a third of the water supply in England and Wales comes.
Data from the UK’s Environment Agency in August this year shows that almost 500 chemicals, some of which are banned, have been found in various mixtures across all 171 river and groundwater catchments tested in England in 2024.
More than half of them are classified as very toxic, toxic or harmful to aquatic life, according to the European Chemicals Agency, and a banned, carcinogenic “forever chemical” was among twenty “substances of very high concern” found.
Farm run-off was another major source of contamination, with approximately 30% of the substances commonly used as insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and medicines for livestock.
Around 34% of substances detected are pharmaceuticals, caffeine and sweeteners, which are probably discharging from inadequately maintained sewage treatment works.
Pollution is literally killing the rivers and the creatures in them. And threatening our lives and the lives of generations to come.
A global crisis
Crisis already faces half of the world’s more than eight billion population, with intermittent or no access to clean water.
Even major cities are facing what is referred to as Day Zero – when there is no water available. This almost happened this year to Mexico City – with a population of 22 million, the largest city in North America. It almost happened to Cape Town in South Africa in 2018, affecting its 4.6 million inhabitants.
In the EU area, almost two-thirds of its surface water, – rivers and lakes – are polluted, according to the European Environmental Agency. Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, which is affecting its water supply. We regularly now see droughts in Spain, with water rationing imposed. The other consequence of climate change, of course, is the increase in flooding, with the devastating consequences we have witnessed in Valencia, Spain just this week.
According to a UNESCO report published earlier this year, “Roughly half of the world’s population currently experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year (IPCC, 2023). While some areas experience water scarcity a few months per year, others endure severe water scarcity year-round. Water stress has important implications for social stability, and water deficits can be linked to 10% of the increase in migration worldwide (Zaveri et al., 2021).”
“Over the period 2002–2021, floods caused nearly 100,000 deaths (with an additional 8,000 in 2022), affected another 1.6 billion people (with another 57 million in 2022) and caused US$832 billion in economic losses (US$45 billion in 2022). Over the same period, droughts affected over 1.4 billion people, killed over 21,000 more and triggered US$170 billion in economic losses (CRED, 2023).
“Continued global warming is projected to intensify the global water cycle, and to further increase the frequency and severity of droughts and floods, with more very wet and very dry weather and climate events, and seasons. The incidence of climate-related water- and vector-borne diseases is expected to rise across all regions, and there will be a higher frequency of substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses, in freshwater ecosystems (IPCC, 2023).”
A study reported in Science magazine on 15 August 2024, estimated that only 1 in 3 people globally used safely managed drinking water services in ‘low and middle-income countries’ in 2020. This study estimates that 4.4 billion people in low and middle-income countries – over half the world’s population – don’t have safe household drinking water.
The study suggests that the figure provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which estimated that in 2021 2 billion people lacked access to clean water, is a huge underestimation.
Two billion is bad enough to indict the current world economic system and is argument enough to justify a world rebellion against the international capitalist class whose system dominates across the planet.
The possibility that it is four billion should stir us not only to question how this is possible in the 21st century but to redouble our efforts to change the system.
The same report identified faecal contamination as the primary limiting factor affecting almost half the population of ‘low and middle income countries.
Human or animals defacating near a water supply, or where the sanitation is otherwise inadequate, can lead to diarrheal disease, which may be tolerated in adults, but which causes the deaths of over 1,000 young children every day, primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Access to safe drinking water is affected by many things, including climate – with extreme weather events making the problem worse: low-income countries currently facing water insecurity are also the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The problem is not always the shortage of water, but that its quality is poor and its availability to homes is affected by bad management issues such as insufficient water pressure.
In another study of 15 cities in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, in 12 of the 15 cities analysed, households connected to the municipal piped system received water intermittently, which compromises quality. In the 15 informal settlements studied, seven receive water less than 17 hours a week. Households that lack access to publicly provided water obtain water from alternative sources which can cost up to 52 times as much. In informal and low-income settlements in three cities, Cochabamba, Kampala, and Mzuzu, basic supplies of water appear unaffordable to households with average income.
Britain after privatisation
After 35 years of water privatisation in the UK the water and sewage system does not and cannot cope with the needs of the 67 million population in the third decade of the 21st century. It cannot protect the environment or guarantee our health. According to Labour’s new Environment Secretary Steve Reed, it cannot even guarantee regular access to drinking water in the next decade.
That is, in the world’s sixth largest economy, this system – the capitalist profit system – cannot provide safe sanitation or guarantee the continued availability of water that is safe to drink or to bathe in.
The profit of a very small number of private owners comes before the needs of 67 million people.
The capitalists will poison the planet and everything on it and in it to make a profit. They will continue to do this, unless we stop them.
Yet, the new capitalist Labour government under Starmer will only tinker with the existing privatised set-up.
Labour has decided to set up a commission, to be chaired by a former deputy-chairman of the Bank of England Sir Jon Cunliffe, which should tell you everything you need to know about what to expect from it. Nothing meaningful.
Reed said that the review will carry out a ‘root and branch’ assessment. He said, “If we had had better regulation, I don’t think the water sector would be in the state that it is in today.”
But he has explicitly ruled out nationalisation as an option. Instead he wants “more robust” regulation.
He said that the Cunliffe review will be “the first comprehensive review of the sector for 35 years”, seemingly forgetting that Labour was in power for fourteen of those years under Blair and then Brown – and did nothing.
Reed pointed out that without intervention by the 2030s – just five years away – “the demand for clean drinking water will start to outstrip supply and that means people won’t always have access to clean drinking water in the way they currently don’t in some parts of the Mediterranean”.
Yet, all he calls for is better regulation.
Reed said, “The whole water sector…failed the public, they failed their customers, they failed their investors and they failed the environment.”
Well, it certainly did not fail the investors, the shareholders, who have walked away with at least £78 billion pounds over the last 35 years. Reed – and the entire Labour leadership – are completely wedded to capitalism, to the profit system. Their priority is to make more profit for the capitalists.
These ‘investors’ have not invested anything like enough to maintain and improve Britain’s water and sewage system. They have simply used there shares to boost their already ample bank balances.
We can expect nothing of use or benefit from this ‘review’ or from this government. Regulation will inevitably be manipulated, mangled and ignored by the water companies, whatever new regime is created. Most importantly, having ruled out nationalisation, the water industry knows that Labour will have to rely on the private water companies to deliver at least some sort of service, even if it isn’t up to the required standards. They have Labour over a barrel.
Debt to pay dividends
Sewage spills into England’s lakes, rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled in 2023. According to the Environment Agency, there were 3.6 million hours of spills, compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022. On average last year (2023) there were 1,271 spills a day across England, compared to 825 in 2022.
Dry-Spilling – i.e. releasing sewage outside of heavy rain of flooding is illegal. Yet it is deliberately and repeatedly used to discharge waste water as a result of the industry’s collective failure – refusal – to invest sufficiently in their waste water treatment plants.
It makes more sense – that means more money – for the companies to dump the waste illegally and face fines than to invest in improving the system and make the dumping unnecessary.
Private profits – dividends – take priority over public health.
When Margaret Thatcher privatised the water and sewage industry in 1989, the private water companies had no debt. They were given assets worth billions. It was a heist in plain view. And the theft continues to this day.
From no debt in 1989, the water companies had built up debts of £60.6 billion by 2023, according to Ofwat, the industry regulator. According to research by the Financial Times, the 16 water companies have paid out £78 billion in dividends in the 32 years between 1991 and 2023.
We can take just one example: Macquarrie, an Australian asset-management company. Between 2006 – 2017, it was the biggest shareholder in Thames Water – the largest water company, providing water and sanitation to London and the surrounding regions.
In five of those eleven years dividends exceeded the amount of profit the company was making, and debt quadrupled from 2.5 billion to more than 10 billion.
Incredibly, Macquarrie was allowed to take over Southern Water in 2021, after Southern almost went bankrupt. In July 2024 Southern Water paid its chief executive Lawrence Gosden a bonus of £183,000, taking his pay for that year to £764,000. Its chief financial officer Stuart Ledger was given a £128,000 bonus, taking his total pay to £610,000.
This was despite Ofwat describing its business plan, presumably drawn up by these two men, as “inadequate” and requiring it to be rewritten. Ofwat said it did not meet even “minimum” standards. Southern Water is on Ofwat’s financial health watchlist along with Thames Water and South East Water.
Southern Water wanted Ofwat to approve a 73% rise in household bills over a five year period to 2030. Ofwat allowed bills to be raised by 44%. This will raise average water bills for households covered by Southern Water from £451 per household per annum to £722 by 2030, after including an annual 2% increase for inflation is factored in.
The same sort of increases in household bills have been allowed for the other water companies. The ordinary family will pay.
The water companies are regarded by their shareholders as ‘cash cows’, paying out huge dividends that they cannot afford. And the chief executives are paid handsomely for ensuring that the dividends keep coming, even at the expense of no, or minimal investment in the business. The dividends and the managers’ remuneration & bonuses will be paid for by the consumer – you and me.
Crisis for London
Thames Water provides water for 16 million households in London and the surrounding area. It is £18 billion pounds in debt.
In June of this year Thames, in an attempt to justify its request to Ofwat to be permitted to increase its water bills to the consumer, admitted that its aging assets pose a “risk to public safety, water supply and the environment”.
It has £19 billion pounds worth of assets that are either in “poor” or “failed condition” or are “no longer capable of reliably performing their function”. After decades of underinvestment, this includes crumbling sewage and water pipes, obsolete monitoring technology and a shortage of reservoirs. Trunk water mains are bursting more frequently. There is a risk of “rapid flooding” for thirty seven and a half thousand basement properties across London.
There are also risks from Cryptosporidium oocysts — a parasite in drinking water that can cause diarrhoea — as the four large London water processing plants require upgrades.
Most of Thames Water’s infrastructure was installed pre-privatisation 35 years ago. Yet it has done next to nothing – like all the water companies – to bring the infrastructure up to the standards required and to modernise.
Thames Water’s own report states that its current annual replacement rate for sewers is 0.2 per cent. At that rate, it would take 500 years to replace them, while on water pipes, the rate is 0.6 per cent and would take 167 years.
The bursts of rising mains – which pump effluent through sewer pipes to waste water treatments – have increased by 70% over the past seven years.
According to the Observer newspaper, England and Wales lost more than a trillion litres of water in the year 2023-24, due to leaky pipes, as revealed from an analysis of the water companies’ annual performance reports. Thames Water, was the worst performer. It leaked 570.4 million litres a day last year, or more than 200bn litres in total, equivalent to just under a quarter of its entire water supply.
Across England and Wales the infrastructure has reached the end of its serviceable life. Yet no major improvements have been carried out since 2006-2008. No new reservoirs have been built anywhere nationally since the Cassington Reservoir in Derbyshire in 1992. There is no overall nationally integrated plan for providing water and waste services.
And the danger of polluted water reaching your drinking taps is growing. In May this year, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed 46 cases of cryptosporidiosis in the Brixham area of Devon, along with more than 100 other people reporting symptoms of the illness.
So what is the answer?
We must remove the profit motive from the provision of water and sewage and put the needs of the people first.
The huge level of support (82%) in the UK for nationalisation of water indicates the recognition of the need to make the provision of water a public necessity, not a source of private profit. But any form of public ownership must be truly democratic and accountable. It must be owned in common by us all, and run by us in the interests of all. Nationalisation by a capitalist government, running it in the interests of a capitalist economy is not a real solution.
Just like all the other nationalised industries and services, the nationalised water industries and services prior to Thatcher’s election in 1979 were never democratically owned or run. Neither the workers in the industry nor the consumer households had any say in what happened.
We should not look back to 1945 Labour government-style nationalisation. The ‘mixed economy’ was a capitalist economy, with a state sector run in the interests of private capital, funded by the public from taxation. That is not the answer.
We need democratic common ownership of the water and sewage system. They must be democratically owned, democratically controlled, and democratically managed, with democratic planning for the future improvement and expansion of the system. Only then can we guarantee that the necessary resources – land, labour, equipment, science and technology – are put into ensuring that our water supply and sanitation is of the highest standard.
But we cannot look at water in isolation. It is so integrally interconnected with every other aspect of society that it inevitably raises the question of who controls the rest. Who owns it? And who benefits from that ownership?
Livestock farming and agricultural fertilisers affect the water systems. Industries use water for all sorts of manufacturing purposes. Call data centres used to produce Artificial Intelligence and cloud usage require vast amounts of water to cool the computers. Every area of the economy relies on water. It’s not just water that needs to be brought into democratic public ownership.
Climate change, which has such a massive impact on the world’s water systems, cannot be confronted on the basis of the public ownership of water alone, or even of large sectors of the economy. The increased number of extreme weather events, including droughts and floods require an international response. It requires a global plan to organise production to reduce carbon emissions.
But we can’t expect the international capitalist class to do anything to prevent the impending climate catastrophe. They are too concerned with their short-term profits to do anything about global warming. That requires a change in the way Britain and the rest of the world are run. It requires the democratic ownership on an international scale of all land, water, industry, transport, science and technology, in order to protect the environment on which we all depend.
Socialists do not think that there is a ‘national’ solution. The solution is the fundamental transformation of property relations on an international scale. So we must fight where we are, and link up with others internationally.
Things are getting worse and are not going to be reversed so long as this system persists.
Of course, we have to fight for reforms in the here and now, to alleviate the present misery faced by billions. But so long as this system exists we will always have to fight that fight. We must organise to put an end to the necessity of this permanent struggle for the very basics of life. We must set our sights on fundamentally changing the whole system.
We cannot expect any of the established parties to do anything meaningful at all about water, or about any of the other problems we face.
Socialists cannot ignore this issue. We have to get involved and present our arguments for fundamental change.
That means changing the system from top to bottom. Socialists aim to abolish the profit system, – capitalism – not to manage it.
We must expropriate the capitalist class, which has grown obscenely, unbelievably, rich through its ownership of the world’s resources and global production, including water. They have demonstrated over the decades and centuries that they have been in power that they are not fit to be left in charge.