The sewage dumping numbers are out and it's worse than ever.
Four years after WASP's Prof Peter Hammond ripped the lid off the sewage scandal and showed an epidemic of illegal pollution, Thames Water shows how ineffective the hot air from government and regulators has been, by increasing its sewage dumping hours by 50%.
Lots of talk, lots of monitoring, threats and promises but one key feature remains:
Illegal pollution is still profitable and with perfectly adequate legislation in place, it is our successive governments' choice that it remains so.
Labour and Tory, both consistent in putting the profit of largely overseas shareholders ahead of the country's infrastructure, environment and, of course, people.
Prof Hammond's report is here
It's designed to be read and understood
with ease.
Here are two extracts.
Some of the pollution events are lengthy and unbroken - very far from the short term emergency measures we were assured they were when we had to rely on water companies, regulators and Defra for analysis.
Some of the worst affect our most supposedly protected habitats, such as chalk streams.
Here is one at Chesham. Promises and assurances laid bare as what so often mean nothing more than greenwashing and continued, profitable, pollution.
The report was covered by the Guardian's Sandra Laville, here
So while water companty staff struggle daily to try to minimise illegal pollution, as seen in the BBC2 'Inside the Crisis' documentary, the Boards of Directors and influencers from the owning interests make the decisions to leave assets operating illegally, while extracting the profits from doing so. CEOs now complain that they were not given the money to do the work needed but cetified evey year that it was enough and in total, across the industry, extracted about £85 Billion to shareholders, while never putting any of their money in to fix the assets, just to buy a refundable ticket to take money from captive customers - and the scam continues, even now.
Two episodes - WASP is in Ep2.
If ever a thorough independent inquiry was needed it is now, but all we have to quieten public dissent, is the 'Independent Water Commission' which is worthy of a blog all on its own.
They looked so smug the upper "managment". Poor workers haven't got a hope of a better future at the moment.