25 signatures reached
To: Labour and Liberal Democrats in Westminster
Nationalise the water industry
There needs to be a commitment to nationalise the water industry and take it out of the hands of those whose only seeming motive is corporate profit at the expense of our precious rivers and seas.
Why is this important?
This is the only way the people of this country can regain faith in a system that has become infested with lies, hypocrisy and greed. Since privatisation these companies have paid out £65 billion to shareholders while presiding over an industry that most countries would be ashamed of. The majority of people would, I believe, be surprised and angered to be told that sewage overspills amounted to nearly 1000 in total in a year. But no, how do you begin to process the information that these amount to an average of almost 1000 a day. I'm tempted to believe that no sewage is ever processed, it's simply dumped into our rivers and seas. And in this year of shame dividends to shareholders almost tripled from £540 million to £1.4 billion. So we come to this past week when we finally, after 34 years, get a mealy-mouthed apology from Ruth Kelly of Water UK, which represents these companies, at the same time announcing a £10 billion investment over the next 7 years. To be funded by the water companies? No. By you and I. I am asking the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties to do what I believe a huge number of people in this country want them to do, and commit to nationalising these companies and providing the new organisations with the funding to put right the incompetence and greed of the last 34 years.
