Swalecliffe Brook (1) 14/05/23
Photo taken by Whitstable payment boycotter, Liz Foreman
by
‘Boycotter Frankie’
Dear South East Water/Southern Water,
Re Account number xxxxxx
Please find enclosed a cheque for £xx.xx, as specified on the bill dated 5 May, received from you at this address, to cover the cost of water supplied to the property.
I regret I cannot in all conscience pay the amount you are charging for wastewater processing, for the same reasons I have explained several time in previous correspondence. I can only reiterate that I cannot see a justification for customers being expected to pay for a service which they do not receive. In fact, without the necessary change, we would actually be paying to pollute the seas.
The developments reported recently are risible: ‘English water companies will pay an estimated £14.7bn in dividends by the end of this decade, while making customers pay for new investment to stem the tide of sewage pollution in seas and rivers, analysis for the Observer has revealed. Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron denounced the billions going to shareholders as “absolutely scandalous” while families struggling with the cost of living would be facing increases in bills to pay for the sewage cleanup.’ [The Guardian, May 20.]
I also draw your attention to the fact that ‘In a study of 30 treatment works in 2020 run by nine of the 10 water and sewerage companies in England and Wales, the volume of raw sewage discharged was estimated at 11 billion litres – or the equivalent volume to 4,352 Olympic pools
… the scale of illegal discharges of raw sewage by water companies is 10 times higher than official data suggests.’ [The Guardian, May 27]
As Mr Farron says, “The whole thing stinks.” The literal truth of this is disgustingly self-evident, as is obvious from the photographs I enclose fyi. These pictures show our local Swalecliffe stream adjacent to Tankerton beach. The danger to all forms of life including human is overwhelming and disastrous.
The Financial Times recently informed readers how dividends paid by privatised water and sewage companies increased last year, as reported figures are misleading due to several companies having ‘layered corporate structures with numerous subsidiaries, only one of which – the operating company – is regulated by Ofwat.’ However, as you will be aware, such cynical and deliberate use of opaque and convoluted structures are no longer fooling citizens.
To add further unethical insult to injury, Southern Water is colluding with Israeli apartheid, installing water meters in the UK manufactured by Arad, an Israeli multinational company involved in the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands on which Israel has built hundreds of illegal colonies, such as Ariel and Barkan. Water apartheid perpetrated by Israel as a form of ethnic ‘cleansing’; indigenous Palestinians are shot at and imprisoned for trying to access water by the Israeli army and armed settlers who repeatedly vandalise and destroy Palestinians’ wells, pipes and cisterns. (They also discharge their sewage onto Palestinian farmland and water courses, so perhaps these war criminals have quite a lot in common with Southern Water.) Amnesty International, in its 2009 report, stated: “Israel uses more than 80 per cent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, the main source of underground water in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, while restricting Palestinian access to a mere 20 per cent. “… “In some rural communities Palestinians survive on barely 20 litres per day, the minimum amount recommended for domestic use in emergency situations. Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians living in rural communities have no access to running water and the Israeli army often prevents them from even collecting rainwater. In contrast, Israeli settlers, who live in the West Bank in violation of international law, have intensive-irrigation farms, lush gardens and swimming pools.”
We wonder if this of concern to Darren Bentham, Director for Universal Metering at Southern Water, who speaks highly of the company, and is pictured on its website. This is but one incursion of Israeli technology into British infrastructure; e.g., notably, a CEO of Arad worked at Elbit Systems, which provides the military hardware Israel uses to destroy Palestinian lives, working hand in glove with weapons and surveillance technologies manufacturers in the UK.
One last point: how insulting it is to receive a leaflet with the bill, entitled ‘Gulp – it’s a big ask,’ requesting donations to Water Aid. The statements ‘we need your help to bring clean water to everyone’ and ‘Let’s bring clean water to the world’ beggar belief – the water companies are destroying the world’s oceans on which the survival of the world depends!
Our household will continue to withhold payment and I am glad to know many other customers are also using boycotting as a tactic to resist profiteering, environmental devastation and criminality.
Boycotter Frankie
Pollution in Swalecliffe Brook
Photo taken by Whitstable payment boycotter, Liz Foreman
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