Cocaine fish: 450 years worth of sewage discharged into UK waters | LBC analysis
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- Опубликовано: 16 окт 2024
- Professor Alex Ford has been examining the impact sewage is having on marine life. Following record sewage discharges, he found drugs in every single specimen. He talks through his research with Tom Swarbrick.
Sewage spills into England's rivers and seas doubled in 2023, marking the worst year on record.
Some 3.61 million hours of monitored sewage spills were reported in England in 2023, more than double the 1.75 million hours in 2022 and also well above the 3.10 million hours recorded in 2020.
Storm overflow spills are generally caused by heavy rainfall, the Environment Agency said, as more water run-off can put pressure on the sewer network.
The rise in sewage spills was in part driven by the heavy rain recorded in 2023, which was the sixth-wettest year on record. 2022. 2020 is the most comparable year to 2023 in terms of rainfall.
The Environment Agency said that the figures were disappointing, but not surprising. Comparisons over the years are difficult as an increasing number of storm overflows have been fitted with monitors over time, and all now have the technology to record spills.
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Since privatisation not one new reservoir has been built and the population has grown by 10 million since then
Privatisation is the greatest steal ever seen by the older generation from the younger generations.
It allowed them to cut their taxes and build up wealth. While the younger generation will have to buy the sold infrastructure back and repair it. Which will lead to tax raises on them or even worse to cuts in social security.
Every single tax cut we had is basicly a darling by the generations in power which the next generations will have to pay back because a growing economy must mean growing investments in infrastructure or we will reach the point we have
It's ok its raining this weekend..
Next week who knows.
Nhs going down that route too regardless of labour getting into power
@@gmanlee575 I don't envy the toil Labour have ahead of them, it's going to take a lot of time, money and work to get us anywhere close to where we should.
@@thomasparkin259 what labour?🤔you mean tory 2.0
Another day, another story about how joke the country is.
I seem to remember Thatcher selling off the publicly-owned water and sewage industry in England and Wales for £7.6bn, and writing off their debt at the same time. She vowed it would lead to a new era of investment, improve water quality and help bring down bills... however, water firms have also accrued £54bn in debt since privatisation - but paid out dividends to shareholders of £66bn, with 20% of bills going towards servicing debt or paying out dividends on average. Thatcher also set up Ofwat, almost purposely giving it few powers to regulate the water companies.
She sold them at 33% of it's value as well
We arent allowed to talk about this, we must get ready for the bankers meat grinder 😂
She would have privatised her parents if she could have.
Mostly owned by foreign investment companies as well now. So more capital leaving the country.
How do we get it back? can we buy it? will cost a lot of public money but really, privatisation was a failed experiment
Fair play to the Tories, what they have done to the UK is not only ethically and morally wrong but criminal.
So the Tories are responsible for 450 years of sewerage problems? You're bonkers mate.
@@tommyedwards2762think you need to revise your understanding of the figures.
@@izavial it's been going on long before the Tories came to power, I think you need to give your head a wobble
@@tommyedwards2762 yeah since thatcher privatised the whole system - and she was conservative
And you guys just watch it happen.
Super Hans:
“Those oysters are really moreish”
Quality show
😂😂😂
If the water companies aren't doing what we pay them for, could we get a refund, then?
Not while the Tories run cover for them.
Thanks for the laugh.
Its a corporation and it is doing what it said it would 'supply water to Londoners' that is Thames Waters' only obligation
No because we’ve all been scammed for 30yrs
Thames water is in the middle of building a new super sewer that can handle 7x the current population, the only problem is the government are just moaning about discharge instead of putting their hands in their pockets and helping thames water fund this project.
Yes the are a private company but the infrastructure as a whole is used and depended on by everybody and I would much rather see my tax go towards funding projects like this rather than housing illegals in hotels.
Its not just the rivers and oceans though, I live in a rural area where the beef herds drink out of the river, and farmers also pump out of it to water the crops when they need to. This stuff is not only ending up in food we gather from the sea but is getting into the very soil, crops and animals we use for food. I dare say it is in the human water supply as well. We are slowly poisoning the land, the sea and ourselves. I'm no eco-warrior but even I can see that unless someone comes up with a workable plan soon we will really be in the s**t. (Sorry for the pun)
the money needed to repair the water infrastructure is being paid out in dividends to the shareholders... ergo, an already bad situation is going to get even worse and the tories don't care... the water services, electricity, public transport etc. need to be re-nationalised if things are to ever improve...
Remember Dr Vernon Coleman? The old man in a chair. He talked of exactly this.
Nothing wrong eith eco warriors ...at least they understood the problem and tried to fight it before you even smelled the run off. If you're not one you should be.
@@Padraigp The environment is just a weapon to the typical ecowarrior. They are really just interested in bringing down the west.
@@Padraigpexactly
Re-nationalise water , without compensation.
Privatization shouldn't allow companies to privatise profits and nationalise costs but that's where the water companies are. International funds have taken their share of the dividends and left the companies without enough money to do their job and everyone suffers while they take out the last pennies on their way out.
@@cupguin that’s literally all privatisation is for. Not explicitly, mind, but the owners of privatised water are incentivised to cut costs and widen profit margins. Naturally, this means corners being cut, (subsequently services getting worse) and prices being raised.
And, naturally, when they run into issues the taxpayers *has* to front the bill. What else are you gonna do? Live without water?
@@_KRYMZN_nope, privatization means private administration as opose to public - it can be an inlimited company (shareholders) or just 1 person or a group of people. Private is a whole world of options. It also relates to what kind of contract is celebrated and which is the list of responsabilities the private owner has.
Oversimplifying is a method of political indoctrination.
@@puraLusa I wasn’t oversimplifying. I merely stated that privatisation, in all its forms (including the ones you mentioned) expressly prioritises the accumulation of profits over the service provided. Doesn’t matter if it’s 5 shareholders or 500; or if it’s just one owner. They are all incentivised to cut their costs and widen their margins; that’s why they’ll dump raw sewage in waterways and inflate your bill simultaneously. That’s why US healthcare is in the sorry state it’s in; prioritisation of revenue over actually helping people with essential needs.
Over-complicating subjects can also be indicative of political/economic indoctrination. Just confuse people until they give up.
@@puraLusa Pretty sure you're the one over simplifying things. That's the technical definition not the reality.
Thames water for instance has paid billions in dividends without providing the service, including maintenance, it should. Specifically over £7 billion in dividends. Which would be bad enough but it's also over £14 billion in debt meaning over the decades it's taken on debt without using that debt to improve the business. Which is a lot for a single company but not unique. Overall water companies are tens of billions in debt, which again they took on as loans then paid out billions in dividends and massive executive salaries.
Which is fine if you're an average private company making widgets. Assuming you aren't raiding the employee pensions or something to enrich the executives go nuts. Take on plenty of debt, don't fix the machinery and eventually you go bankrupt. Or you're forced out of business by your competitors. Water companies don't work like that.
For one there's no competition, they have geographic monopolies. Even if you think competition magically makes things better there aren't any so they can be terrible and they have a captive market that has to keep paying. If they don't have the money to upgrade the pipes there isn't a different company's pipes you can pick from.
Secondly they aren't making widgets but providing vital infrastructure. Again those pipes need to work. That water treatment needs to occur. We're talking about health risks to the populace as well as massive environmental damage that needs to be paid for. Which can happen indirectly. Someone takes a boat out or does some wild swimming and the e coli levels are too high they'll end up in A&E, which means the damage caused by the water company getting paid for by the tax payers. Discharge is also impacting fishing which means revenue goes down and in turn taxes, not to mention exports. It also affects beaches, even if you ignore the property values declining, that's a hit to tourism. So overall revenue take a hit meaning councils have to raise taxes or operate with less money.
All of which could have been prevented if that massive debt had been used to improve the business rather than pay out dividends and bonuses to executives. Genuinely look at who's been profiting and they're all over the world. Some pension fund in Canada or Australia has made millions and now they're voting against spending money on maintenance without massively raising the cost to customers. Not the people with the profit but the captive customers are going to get higher bills to pay to finally get the service these companies should have been supplying!
Which is obviously unsustainable since they need to pay down the debt, do massive structural improvements that are going to cost billions and they'll only bother if they can still take out billions in profit. So eventually when the money runs out they'll leave, personally enriched while the UK has to pay for massive cleanup, health costs and take on the economic impact of all the damage. Which would be terrible enough but again this is infrastructure. You might be able to sell a going concern but who's in the market for a water company that needs to spend billions to do repairs? Guess who is going to be paying for that bill. Because they've already privatised the profits right out of the UK so there's no money left but there's plenty of debt and operating costs. Unless someone gets given a massive financial incentive to take over the companies charges are they're going to end up owned by the public that will need to inject billions, or public costs, so people aren't even worse off. No one who made a profit will pay a penny or a mao or a fils to pay down the debt or fix up the infrastructure, that's all going to be public money in the end.
At which point some enterprising government will notice there's a bit of the country they can flog to give a temporary injection of cash to the coffers and the whole sorry mess might even repeat itself letting some enterprising company in the future privatise the profits yet again.
The problem is far to many people turn a blind eye on the damage being caused to wildlife and yet these same people will go up in arms if this was being done to pet dogs and cats and even more so if it was there homes being filled with sewage!!!!
The Environment Agency is becoming an apologist for the water companies that it should be reporting on. The water companies have had 30 years to develop proper management systems for handling run-off and tidal surges. Something stinks in our government agencies when employees can leave and then be hired by the water companies they are supposed to have been policing.
Totally agree. These civil servants are hiding behind there nice salaries, pensions. No whistle blowers out there?
The environment Agency has been eviscerated by this gov so it cannot perform its duties to an effective level.
Looks like im gonna be selling trout by the gram 🤑🎣❄️❄️❄️
i know a guy
3 trout for hundred ennnnn 😂
Im always failing drug tests because i swim in sewage.
😂😂😂❤🎉
You probably only need to drink tap water at this point. I'm surprised no one turns their attention to tap water, when companies do absolutely nothing about sewage, what makes people think they suddenly are the best professionals at providing clean and safe water?
You go swimming with Conor Benn?
@@globalist1990 no wonder im up at 4 in the morning after a glass of watter b4 bed 😂👏
I feel a swelling in my chest. It makes you feel so patriotic and proud. Doesn’t it?
Have you been eating fish?
Hahaha 😂 keep voting for the establishment you fools
It's high tide that somethings done about it 😮
@kendiamond8722, what other options are there? Please enlighten us.
@@wayneerichsen How about you give some thought to the problems and formulate solutions instead of leaving it to vested interests ? It's why we have brains... isn't it ?
Michael Gove about to take up fishing 🎣
There is part in the UKs Environmental Law that is called “Polluter Pays Principle”. This needs enforcing.
If the sewage is damaging to marine life whats it doing to us humans!
Precisely.. If water treatment plants don't rid this stuff then its already in our systems too.
I just snorted a mirror carp and it didn't do anything to me. I think this guy's lying.
You have to dry it out and grind it up first
I catch them . They don't look off their heads too me..
common carp are better
😂
Gotta smoke it bro
We are Paying the water companies for a service.
If they are not providing the service why are we still paying?
No wonder Rees Mogg said the fish were happy, they were high!
It don't just affect wildlife.. What about the chemicals in our water?? Would like to see tests on what's in our drinking water
Yeah I stoped drinking that
30 different chemicals apparently 🤢🤮
you're not drinking Sewage
@@paint_thinner Really ? There is a stat that by the time you drink water from a tap in East London, it has been through 7 people and through the sewer system.
Should we be asking what effect the proliferation of all those environmental oestrogens and androgen blockers is having on human fertility, and especially on developing human foetuses, or is it easier to just blame the burgeoning population, worldwide, of transsexuals on decadence, demonic possession or simply calling it "a lifestyle choice" ?
Another example of "private sector efficiency".
Quite literally ‘there’s something in the water’.
Just "slightly" concerning?! Every day, there's a story that makes me thankful that I don't have more than a decade of life left.
I find watching re-wilding videos help. The media is all negative because it gets the most views. But I look up statistics, and other news that makes me feel better. Such as there longer being any holes in the ozone layer, global poverty decreased, global hunger decreased, global access to education increased, etc.
The media loves to downplay everything
"Oh, quite, quite!"
Labour needs to re-nationalise polluting water companies, without compensation. The tens of billions needed to clean up their mess cannot be passed on to customers. Those responsible need to face criminal prosecutions. A national scandal.
Labour isn't labour= it's Tory light.
STARMER HAS BROKEN EVERY PROMISE HE MADE, DOESNT EVEN HAVE A POLICY, just protected by Murdoch press , waiting for inevitable demise of Sunak
Never going to happen, Labour are more likely to privatise more things, not bring anything back into public ownership.
@@SI-vb7hd Nah .Starmer is a different beast to Blair .
Another national scandal!
The customers, as taxpayers, will be paying one way or another.
The water companies keep putting up their bills and there are turds floating down the river opposite my house. Funny thing is, the trendy river swimmers think it’s great. The river Avon is one of the most polluted in the country.
I remember joining the EU had this specific benefit, that our council stopped any sewage discharge into our water in my town. Another great 'benefit' of Brexit to have that reversed...
Don't worry Jacob Rees-Mogg and his follow brexiteers are cheerfully arguing in favour of getting rid of the any remaining protections in the name of "reducing red tape".
Brown flags instead of blues flags. Meanwhile much poorer countries have their WHOLE coast covered with blue flags.
its the EU attacking our farmers and way of life though too
That simply isn't true. We didn't used to monitor CSOs. Now we do. But they have always spilled, we just didn't have numbers telling us how often. The EU thenselves took us to court in 2012 about it. So it certainly was happening before leaving the EU. It just wasn't in the news
Everyone who is brainwashed in the uk blames the tories and brexit for everything. That has nothing to do with brexit bud.
Yet the water company management and shareholders are raking in the cash.
We have the ability to impose unlimited fines on water companies, Tories choose not to. Protects the profits of corporations to the exclusion of anything else!! Shows you who the Tories really work for, certainly not the people of the UK!!
💯👍
A privatised water system makes no sense, and never did.
@@dexocube No, it doesn't! Natural monopoly..
“Tories tories tories” lol the media tells you how to vote by the looks of it. Tories, labour, theyre the same people.
@@bb5979 Vote Green or Independent then! 💚
We are far too overcrowded on this island
Wrong. We are packed into small areas of this country but nothing to do with overcrowding in general. No overpopulation problem exists (except maybe in india)
@bb5979 our infrastructure is overwhelmed we are overpopulated
That may be partly my fault
.....yeah, have to admit to a level of contribution 😂😂
🤣🤣🤣👌
450 years worth of sewage what does that even mean.
Feminisation of fish is caused mainly from Nonylphenols, basically plastic. It is in water and food and will have the same affect on humans
Did not Alex Jones mention this and the frogs? Yet we make fun.
Privatisation, The gift that keeps on giving !
And people trust the drinking water
Better use a water filter.
Well Rees-Mogg did promise happy fish! 😂
😅
Prison not Profits.
Now we should ask ourselves what effect the proliferation of all those environmental oestrogens and androgen blockers is having on human fertility, and especially on developing human foetuses.
Just look at testosterone levels in men, they have gone off a cliff
An interesting fact if you give anti-depressant to Lobsters it makes them very angry
Not just around it miles away from the pipes & we have them in rivers too
Switzerland is a land locked country and seems to manage its sewage without polluting its rivers and lakes. They even manage to sell processed sewage as garden fertilizer.
Maybe UK sewage systems have the wrong approach or are just lazy ?
They are thieves taking the money in bonuses that should have been invested in the sewage recycling building😊
Yeah, that must be it. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with economics.
They are a money machine..full stop...
You really comparing Switzerland with UK in 2024?
I lived in Zurich for a year, not once did I see or hear of crime. U could leave ur laptop in the main station or anywhere, go away for 30 mins no body will touch it and so many people said similar story. The Urban planning is thousand years better than UK. Cities ate kept small with so much nature everywhere. Resulting in pure air and drinking water from tap is best in Switzerland, they have water fountains everywhere and body buys water
Immigration is controlled in Switzerland, so if they give somebody Asulym there, he would have applied formerly or from embassy in his country, to ensure he deserves it or really prosecuted. They even do studies yearly to determine which social groups they need in society and manage their immigration based on that and reasonable humanitarian needs
Had some fish last night ended up at a rave untill this morning 😂😂
well done for distracting everyone from the actuality issue and getting them talking about drugs instead . your service to the torys is noted
I think the point was that it's not *just* the sewage we need to worry about from these water companies...
It's the title but not the majority of the content in the video...
Inland BC Canada here. We have lots of rivers around here, and the only thing we dump is diesel and tailings. Why do we keep putting these things anywhere close to the surface water. People are going to start smoking the fish, and I don't mean in the conventional way.
The cost of clean up should be billed to ALL OF THE SHAREHOLDERS of these companies.
There's a lot of talk about these incidents that have been happening all over the country but I don't see any action. Why isn't somebody being held to account over these spillages it's disgusting
The Tories are in power and only interested in ££££
And the reaction of the Brit: Fascinating, thanks for coming on. What does it take to make this nation outraged?
The prejudice is strong. Not only are the fish 'feminized', it works the other way around, too. Just that we don't advocate for men to take hormones as contraception. Also, the general public seems to lack a basic understanding of how it all works. All the 'ooh, aah, no way, really?' attest to that. Where do you think it all goes? You think the circle of life is just a pretty idea? 😢
The other way? Females are becoming more like fish?
Wait what? Are you saying fish are getting "masculinised"?
@globalist1990 u don't even think he knows what he's trying to say
Jusr keep in mind that Tom Swarbrick worked shoulder to shoulder with some of the people responsible for this problem during his time working with Theresa May
Guess that’s all the bag heads converting to pescatarianism. Puts you off eating hearing this. Even though we already know.
Overpopulation has so many negatives on this small island of ours including building more houses on flood land, Food quality, Food and energy consumption and waste of all types we clearly have to be insane to keep this happening.
“I don’t like them dumping chemicals in the water that turn the friggen fish trans.”
You think its just the fish... What do you think we're drinking?
Does this go into our drinking water!???
WE HAVE KNOWN OF THIS SINCE BEFORE I WAS BORN, I AM 55 NOW, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE DESPITE THIS KNOWLEDGE....... SO WHAT'S NEW!
It’s not amazing it’s a crime , that these companies get away with dumping all that waste onto the lands and rivers ,
The feminising of fish was in New Scientist back in the 80s. Nearly 50 years and we're still talking about it, rather than taking action.
The sad thing is people in Just Stop Oil or the other climate loons won't be up in arms about an issue like this
Global warming is more important albeit I don't approve of the methods of jSO..
@@yellard6785 Is it, The environment is one place not highest bid pet project. Were is the activism and massive amounts of funding for water quality. Hmm.
If this isn’t the visible decaying days of a decedent, wasteful, lazy culture I’m not sure what is….
Well, at least the fish are getting something out of the sewage😂
Imagine the effects with all those Puberty Blockers???
This is hilarious, what a great time to be a shrimp 😂
I am not surprised, disgusting people do disgusting things.
This is hilarious what a great time to be a shrimp 😂
So where does the unfiltered untreated chemicals and those that can't be removed end up... they stay in the water supply...
Water company shareholders must be terribly upset that this is paying for their dividends
Eat the rich
✊🏿💙🔥thank you for sharing!
Many of our older houses in Britain have their storm water going straight into the sewers it must a huge load on the system. Newer houses have separate drains.
how much for a plate of oysters. or do they sell them by the gram
Didn't EU membership have tight rules on sewage discharges?
No wonder wild swimming is so popular
And the answer is.....put bills up.
No. Get it back from shareholders
Sewerage company's charging money for treating waste and doing the opposite ..charging cash for environmental pollution
Why isnt the sewage treated to remove all of those things?
The drinking water already has chemicals in it before we drink it.
Whats the solution to this?
Exactly what I said would happen, governments are happy to have carbon taxes but they wont deal with pollution.
The rivers near me in South Wales are being polluted by abandoned minewater , slowly turning them orange :(
That's iron oxide. It absorbs the oxygen in the water and if it's bad enough, fish die.
The host has lot in common with sewage... talks a lot of it
Does that mean that the water companies, fish n chip shops & Fishmongers are knocking out drugs? Don’t bogart that fish stick my friend…
No mention of all the oestrogen run off from dairy farms etc I notice.
Not just feminised fish.
Exactly, the excess estrogen affects negatively both, man and woman
So that's why you can't get it up.
Oh,WEF, water crisis. How unexpected.
Same effects on new born in north England 40 years ago, in study on drinking water &rivers & fish,frogs.
This is a disgrace I have complained about for years! I no longer buy a rod license as most of the river fish are missing from the Ouse due to sewage
Alex Jones was right 😂 but on a serious note as an angler there has been a massive decline on quantity and quality of the fish in areas near sewage plants even in just the last couple years
So we have very happy party fish.
Where the F was it gonna go, but back into the ocean to contaminate the whole sea?! 😂 lol, the ocean floor is our chemical bin.
why the laughter ecosystem is collapsing
Yup nothing to laugh about.
I wonder whether the presence of contraceptives and the test they ran in Canada are any clue to the reasons for falling male fertility around the world?
Invest in a superior cleaning system!
Don't pay any water bill until you see an up to date water quality report
Water quality reports are published
Was it the by products we excreted from our bodies that made its way into the water then the fish? And not actual drugs?
In certain states in the US, it's illegal to dump pharmaceuticals either in the bin or flushing them. Every pharmacy has a box to dispose drugs safely. Same with batteries, light bulbs, etc.
@homie3461everything goes through the liver and processed.
Drugs detected in the sewer system are the by products of that drug not the actual drug
Tom Swarbick gonna be buying oysters from now on judging on his mannerisms in this video 😂
That shows you what the population of Uk does day in day out.
If someone’s eating they’re tea they can see the title of the article lol
That's one insane party.
Some one must have a giant stomach upset .
Big Fish Little Fish Cardboard Box
🤣🤣
It is logic and simple if we choose to sit down and absorb the reality!
People throughout history “who would ever pay a penny to buy poo”?
The British gov as the pay billions for Dutch poo: hold my tea
When I was young a channel called Spacetoon suddenly appeared
They began to warn us of the future
Spacetoon said almost 25 years ago that this would happen
so that's why I; 'm addicted to fish and chips! At least the fish aren't depressed.