- 2 days ago
Dirty Business S01E02 (2026) [Full Movie] [Full Episodes]Full EP - Full
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:17They're allowed to dump untreated sewage, but that can't be right.
00:22There's something weird about this.
00:24Do you think that's poo?
00:25Of course it's not poo.
00:27Wash it up, scrubby.
00:28Heather's brain has lost the ability to control her vital organs.
00:31I think it's time we consider turning off her ventilators.
00:34We've got to get this to the Environment Agency. They're the sewage police.
00:37We want to strip out as much unnecessary regulation as possible.
00:42They make Delboy look like a f***ing amateur.
00:44When the everyday flows are missing, they're not treating the sewage.
00:48And if they're not treating the sewage, there's nowhere for it to go.
00:51Except into the river.
00:52Regulate yourselves, and then just let us know if you've committed any crimes.
00:56They've dumped sewage a thousand times.
00:59These aren't accidents.
01:01It's a policy.
01:02This is starting to look like organised crime.
01:08It's only now that it's coming to light.
01:10Thank goodness for the people's regulator, Peter Abbott.
01:13Thank goodness for Ash.
01:15Thank goodness for the public who are standing up and showing you what's really going on.
01:26Hi, Amy Christophers, Citizens Against Southwest Water.
01:32When Peter decoded these spreadsheets, we realised that the company had been dumping sewage into our river for years.
01:45Me and the machines, we are now investigating hundreds, hundreds of these sewage works using the data from each one
01:56of them.
01:58You know they've got to go down to, um, Whitstable this weekend.
02:02What, Saturday?
02:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:06They've got these two people that have been working at the agency.
02:08It says that the Southern Water solicitors have been threatening them.
02:15What do you know about Charles and Camilla?
02:17Charles and Camilla were coming down for the Whitstable Oyster Festival, right?
02:23When they tested them, they were so full of shit, they had to give them oysters imported from France.
02:28All over the local news.
02:30Whitstable's oysters under threat from sewage leaks.
02:34Sewage spills threaten to wipe out Whitstable's oyster farmers.
02:37People were very fucked off.
02:41Look at the amount of...
02:44Effort.
02:46So, Southern Water, you're not releasing sewerage into the sea.
02:50By then, the Environment Agency had no choice.
02:53They had to launch an investigation.
02:55Made a mistake putting us in charge.
02:56We're the ones in the trenches.
02:58We take things seriously, there are still a few of us left.
03:01But we had no clue what we were letting ourselves in for, did we?
03:03Right.
03:04Yeah.
03:05We done.
03:06Pull my back out this morning.
03:08Hello?
03:10Hello, it's John Bull from the Environment Agency.
03:12We've got an appointment?
03:13Tell them I'm waving.
03:15Tell them I'm waving.
03:18Begah, go on.
03:19Go on.
03:19Right.
03:20Jump up and down.
03:20Alright, that's it.
03:21I'm not...
03:21Honestly, I can't stand up for too long today.
03:24Sit down, mate.
03:24We know you're in there.
03:25We are not leaving.
03:26We have an appointment.
03:28It's now...
03:29Cheese mayo spring onion.
03:31This looks like one word, then.
03:35Press one to speak to no one.
03:37Press two...
03:38To speak to no one.
03:39To speak to no one.
03:40Press three...
03:42To give up all hope.
03:44Same bollocks every works we went.
03:46Chichester.
03:47Millbrook.
03:48Slow Hill.
03:48Fullham.
03:50So many times just refusing us entry.
03:52Sometimes we just snatch the load books right out of our hands.
03:55We'll just tell us to fuck off.
03:57When you get chicken from a supermarket, it's got the plastic covering on, right?
04:01Yeah.
04:02Lift that off.
04:03Leave it for a few minutes because it automatically smells of fish.
04:07People get scared, think they're going to get food poisoning.
04:09That's when they throw it away.
04:10But if you leave it for a bit, let the air come out, right?
04:12No.
04:13It just smells of chicken.
04:14Then you can cook it.
04:14Come on.
04:17Hiya.
04:18Miss Humphries.
04:20Yeah?
04:20Yeah, well...
04:22We've made an appointment.
04:23Oh, sorry.
04:24Is that you guys?
04:25Yeah.
04:25Yeah, we've been here for a while.
04:26We've been buzzing.
04:28We're at 9.15.
04:29Come on.
04:29Oh, 9.15.
04:31Yes, 9.
04:32As opposed to...
04:343.15.
04:35Yeah.
04:35Can we just get in there, please?
04:36Can you buzz us in?
04:37He's got a bad back.
04:38Come on.
04:39Oh, my God.
04:41What?
04:42Is your buzzer broken?
04:43No.
04:43Have you worked there long?
04:46Er...
04:47I wouldn't say long.
04:49Yeah.
04:50There's two really nice stools you can sit on.
04:54So...
04:55Poppy, can I just ask, these are the engineers logbooks, right?
04:58Yeah, I think they go back, like, ten years.
05:01So, how much do you read?
05:04Erm, we've got enough to be getting home with.
05:06Alright?
05:06We'll give you a shout-out if we need you, is that alright?
05:08Yeah.
05:09Good.
05:10Great.
05:10Do you want me to go?
05:11Yeah.
05:12Erm...
05:12Storm turned full.
05:13Yeah.
05:14Storm sunk, I will flow.
05:15They've had to triple reset.
05:18Brilliant.
05:18You've got nothing there, right?
05:20What, on the status record?
05:20Yeah.
05:21But on these status record books, it's 12 as well.
05:23Mr. Paul, David Marwood, Southern Water.
05:26Oh, good to meet you.
05:27Nice to meet you, Alex.
05:27Nice to meet you.
05:28I am gonna have to ask you to hand back these logbooks, please.
05:31Erm, they are proprietary material.
05:34Sorry, I don't...
05:35I...
05:35These books, they are the property of Southern Water.
05:38The engineer logbooks, yeah.
05:40You have gained access to them unlawfully.
05:42Erm, no.
05:42I'm asking you to hand them back.
05:44Unlawfully?
05:44These are the property of Southern Water.
05:47You gaining access to them is illegal.
05:49If you just hand it over...
05:50No one wants to...
05:50Sorry, sorry.
05:52What we're doing...
05:53Mr. Marwood, we are conducting an investigation under section 108 of the environmental law.
06:09What you're doing is unlawful.
06:11Please leave.
06:13Let's just go.
06:14Let's just go.
06:17We'll be back, Mr. Marwood.
06:20Sandwiches.
06:25Criminal offence.
06:26No.
06:27No.
06:28No.
06:28No.
06:28No, it took us seven years.
06:31Seven years.
06:33We need some in the end.
06:35Southern Water has been sentenced to pay a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty...
06:41They pled guilty to 6,971 crimes, composed of 51 counts.
06:46First day.
06:47Each dump is punishable by five years in prison.
06:51But instead, the judge just fined them.
06:53£90 million.
06:54Of course they're doing business.
06:55They dumped 7,400 Olympic swimming pools of raw shite.
07:00With the knowledge of the board.
07:02They were making so much money.
07:04These fines weren't touching the sides.
07:06But this time they were committed to a culture change.
07:09Which is why Toby Willison came in.
07:11Who's Toby Willison?
07:13Oh, you don't know about Toby Willison?
07:17So, Toby was number two in the Environment Agency under Sir James.
07:21But that Southern poached him a year before they were sentenced.
07:25They told the judge that he was going to run a clean-up operation within the company.
07:29He saw that as a mitigating factor.
07:32Reducing the fine from £120 million to £90 million.
07:36Sorry.
07:36You hire the second most senior person at the regulator who is actually prosecuting you.
07:43And you get a £30 million discount on your fine.
07:47But that isn't...
07:49I mean, that's corruption, isn't it?
07:51Well, we can see how it might have the appearance of corruption, but it wasn't.
07:56You see, there's a revolving door.
07:58People leave the agency and go and work for the companies they're regulating all the time.
08:02It's just the way the industry works.
08:05When the agency brought the case against Southern, was this Toby Willison in charge?
08:10What?
08:11We know he was acting chief exec at some point.
08:13Was he deciding who you guys were going to prosecute?
08:18We didn't prosecute any water company execs.
08:21We never have.
08:24You and I can probably remember as kids swimming in the sea and being surrounded by floating
08:33faecal material.
08:34I've certainly experienced that now, not as kids.
08:37You look at the quality of our bathing waters now and it is unrecognisable from 20-25
08:43years ago.
08:44That is a direct result of the massive amount of investment the water companies have put
08:50into the networks.
08:53Remarkable.
08:53Well, I don't believe any of that.
08:54Well, James Murray joins us now.
08:55You're not going to believe this one.
08:58Toby...
08:58Willison.
08:59Yeah, what about him?
09:00You know the lobby group funded by the water companies?
09:03Yeah.
09:04Willison has been on their board since 2019.
09:07You mean after he went to Southern Water?
09:08No, no, no, no, no, no.
09:10He's been on the board of British water while he was working for the agency.
09:14That means that the number two of the environment agency is at a side hustle working for the
09:18water companies.
09:22Well, water quality is now better than that any time since the industrial revolution,
09:27thanks to tough regulations by the environment.
09:30So this is Toby Willison's boss, is it?
09:32Yeah.
09:33He's at the very, very top.
09:35Liz Truss was the environment minister and she made him head of the environment agency.
09:39I don't know why she chose him.
09:41She seems to think the environment agency is part of the deep state.
09:45That's because the environment agency will not...
09:47What?
09:47...hesitate to go after water companies who cause serious pollution...
09:50But he's at the very top, isn't it?
09:52He's the one we need to get to.
09:53He's our man.
10:03The agency said that she could have contracted E. coli from dog poo.
10:08The little guy who died?
10:09Mm.
10:10I've been looking for another case where my dog feces has triggered an E. coli.
10:15And you can't find one?
10:16Right now.
10:17No, I...
10:18But there aren't any.
10:22Hi, is that Julie?
10:24Hi, this is Chris Hines.
10:27Yes, I work for an organization called Surfers Against Sewage.
10:31Listen, Julie, I'm down at the beach at Dawledge Warwick.
10:35I think we really need to speak.
10:37Now I've always been a surfer.
10:39I moved to Cornwall when I was 19, lived in a caravan, just so I could surf every day.
10:45But everyone was getting sick all the time.
10:47There was this one day when I came up under this huge wave.
10:50I found a sanitary towel stuck to the back of my head and a turd lodged between my chest and
10:56the board.
10:56I thought, this has got to stop.
10:58So we founded Surfers Against Sewage in my caravan.
11:01And it was not long after that that we all went to Parliament in our wetsuits.
11:06We were trying to get the message out about clean water and we didn't do a good enough job.
11:10I picked Dawlish because it had a blue flag.
11:14Of course you did.
11:15Because the blue flag is the gold standard for water quality.
11:18It's meant to mean that the water's clean.
11:20The council, they've set up an investigation team.
11:24If it finds that sewage killed Heather, it's going to be a calamity for business here.
11:29My guess is they're going to be looking for any explanation so long as it's not sewage.
11:35Thanks all for being here at this start-up meeting for the outbreak investigation team.
11:40Sorry, I wonder if we should be calling it an outbreak.
11:44Feels like the kind of term that could alarm people.
11:46I think cluster might be better messaging.
11:49Of course the quality of the bathing water at Dawlish is consistently high.
11:52That's a really good point, I mean that will be reflected in the report.
11:55We know there have been some complaints about sewage on the beaches.
11:59Oh, thanks Sarah, that's right.
12:01We were contacted by members of the public about this and we did send inspectors out.
12:06In the event, there had been just a single spill on July 24th.
12:09A full four days before the preens visited the beach.
12:12That's very unlikely that the spill could have had an impact.
12:15And we know that although the preens went to the beach on several occasions, Heather never swam in the water.
12:21So with sewage looking unlikely as a corporate, we're focusing on fast food and dog faeces.
12:28Mr and Mrs Preen?
12:31We were so sorry to hear about Heather.
12:35Yeah, it must be such a difficult time.
12:38But we just need to ask you a few questions.
12:40Could I ask you about the fast food your family's been eating since you got to Dawlish?
12:45Do you want to know what we had to eat?
12:47Any takeaways? Burgers?
12:49No, we ate in the shadow.
12:50Chicken shops, chippies, any fast food at all?
12:53No, we didn't have any burgers, we didn't have any fast food to be honest.
12:56We were on a bit of a budget, so...
12:58When you went to the beach, how much dog poo did you see?
13:01We didn't see any dog droppings, we saw human sewage.
13:05So why do you want to know about dog poo?
13:07Because if Heather had stepped in something, she'd have told us.
13:09We have to look into every possible source.
13:15So, if you don't know what caused the infection, then you need to shut down the beach, don't you?
13:21Because other children could get this, but my daughter's dead, so you need to shut it down.
13:26That's not going to happen.
13:28After the investigation, there's going to be an inquest.
13:32I can get you a lawyer.
13:35There was an unplanned negligible spill on the 24th, four days before the preens visited the beach.
13:42The Dawlish Coast is a high dispersal area.
13:45The winds and currents are sufficiently strong that any sewage would have been dispersed long before the preens visited the
13:51beach.
13:51E. coli 0157 is not routinely found in sewage, and it's rare in water.
13:56The sea breaks down the bacteria, so there's no record of an E. coli 0157 infection from sea bathing in
14:04the UK.
14:04What kind of health risk would sewage on a footpath present?
14:08It's not for the Environment Agency to comment on a health risk.
14:14You don't have a view about whether sewage is a health risk?
14:18It's not within the remit or the expertise of the Environment Agency to comment on a public health risk.
14:29We walked along the coastal path every day.
14:33There was a discharge coming out from the pipe, and it made a puddle, you see.
14:41How big was the puddle?
14:44I don't know, three feet maybe.
14:47And it was spilling out onto the beach.
14:51It smelt like feces.
14:55And I could see there was a little bit of some pink toilet paper in it.
15:02So you walked around it?
15:04No, we jumped over it.
15:10Except, um...
15:11Heather didn't manage to clear it, and, um...
15:17She landed in the puddle that was coming from the pipe?
15:20Yeah.
15:21You couldn't stop her?
15:24What?
15:27What didn't stop her?
15:31We didn't know.
15:34You say you saw the puddle every day.
15:38Yeah.
15:39You're aware that the Environment Agency has been unable to confirm any subsequent spills.
15:44But there was only one confirmed report of a spill during your holiday.
15:49Why do you think you were the only one who saw the puddle?
15:52I don't know.
15:55I saw it.
15:56Is it possible that you've confused things in your memory?
15:58No, I saw it.
16:00We all saw it, didn't we?
16:05It was a puddle and a little stream of poo.
16:11In the days running out to the Preen's visit, the Environment Agency received at least 14 complaints about sewage on
16:20the beach.
16:21In the week before Heather Preen fell ill, I treated two children with febrile gastroenteritis.
16:28The children had been swimming at the town beach and then found themselves immersed in raw sewage.
16:35I reported it but heard nothing more.
16:38In the days after the Preen's visit, Dorlish was inundated with feces.
16:44Big influxes of sewage debris were turning up on the beach.
16:48Our cleaners logged the number of sanitary towels.
16:51Southwest Water pays contractors to clean up the sewage by hand.
16:54Resort staff were cleaning away sewage as a matter of urgency.
17:02At least six other children were infected with the E. coli virus after being at the beach that day.
17:10Sophie Smith was seven months old.
17:14Back home in Walsall, she was diagnosed with an E. coli O157 infection.
17:2011-year-old Jane Duncan was hospitalized with an E. coli O157 infection.
17:29She bled through her anus 50 times in the first few days and asked her parents if she was going
17:35to die.
17:37Ashley, Ruby and Dylan Hamlin, along with their mum Claire, were all infected.
17:43Claire drove her son Dylan to hospital after they both began bleeding from their backsides.
17:51Doctors wouldn't admit Claire at first, so she cleared up her own blood and vomit from the toilets.
17:59Later, Dylan's sisters Ashley and Ruby were also admitted.
18:12There's no cure for E. coli.
18:15They keep you on a drip and hope for the best.
18:21Dylan's screaming was so frightening his dad thought everyone was going to die.
18:27E. coli 0157 is a pathogen that thrives in sewage.
18:31It can survive in water for up to 91 days.
18:35Swimming in water, infected with E. coli, has been identified as the cause of multiple outbreaks.
18:43We tested the waters around Orlish.
18:46Of the 45 samples taken, only two came back positive for E. coli 0157.
18:52The infected families were all on a part of the beach where dogs were allowed.
18:56They could all have criss-crossed the site of an infected dog faeces.
19:01None of us were on the same part of the beach.
19:04We never saw any dog poo.
19:07This map doesn't make any sense.
19:10Families went on the same part of the beach.
19:12No one saw any dog faeces.
19:14And there's no good evidence of transmission from dogs anywhere.
19:19Southwest Water and the Environment Agency present this improbable theory
19:24whilst choosing to ignore repeated substantial sewage pollution.
19:29The agency did carry out tests on the seawater.
19:33But the testing took place on the 27th of August.
19:37A full month after the infected families had visited the beach.
19:41To slit her off.
19:49Culture quests.
19:51Fucking construction.
19:52Cunt, Radio geometry.
19:52My mum.
19:55They're twisted everything with her.
19:56I'll viciss in it.
20:01I'veенняciced her down haven't I?
20:02I'm not there, Darren.
20:04Think I can ask Henry if I can do her again?
20:06Mum.
20:07What are you on about?
20:08You've done it, you've stuck up for her.
20:20We saw the sanctuary towers, Jill. We saw the toilet row. We...
20:28Didn't we? And we let our babies come back home.
20:37Not here. Not here.
20:53At first they said it was something we had to eat, but it wasn't, so...
20:57Then they came up with dog poo.
21:01But how could all of our kids walk through the same bit of poo without remembering?
21:08I would know if my child had touched poo.
21:15The one thing all our kids did do was go into the water.
21:19We saw the toilet roll. We saw the sanitary towels.
21:25You can't tell us we didn't see it because we did, we saw it.
21:33I know now. We should have turned away from that beach.
21:38I know that. Heather's dad knows that.
21:46We will live with that.
21:49We chose Dawlish because of the blue flag, and we trusted it.
21:54The gold standard of water quality.
21:59We didn't know it was a lie.
22:07No one should have died the way my Heather died.
22:14She was poisoned, and the anti-sickness tablets they gave her meant her little body couldn't get rid of it.
22:24She was liquidised from the inside.
22:32We went on holiday, a family of four, and we've come back a family of three.
22:47And we don't want any money, don't worry.
22:50We don't want your money, so...
22:53We just...
22:55We want something to change.
22:59We don't want another family to go to the beach and come back with one less child.
23:07And you're still dumping sewage.
23:11And you...
23:13You're the environment agency.
23:16You're supposed to look after us, and you are sat here in this court,
23:20and you're swapping notes with Southwest Water. Why?
23:24And it took you...
23:25It took him one month to go looking for the E. coli that killed my daughter?
23:31Why would you do that?
23:35What is this?
23:40I...
23:41I would not wish what has happened to us on my worst enemy.
23:48I wouldn't wish it on your kids.
23:52So...
23:54Please...
23:56Close the beach, please.
24:01Before this happens to somebody else.
24:04Please.
24:16Following an inquisition taken for our Sovereign Lady the Queen, touching on the death of Heather Amy Preen.
24:28The cause of death was E. coli poisoning.
24:33The deceased properly contracted E. coli whilst visiting the beach at Dawlish Warren on the 24th of July,
24:42along with other children who survived.
24:49I recommend that consideration be given to a notice warning the public of sewage discharges,
24:57and that an ultraviolet treatment should be added to the sewage works at Dawlish.
25:02Consideration should be given to greater enforcement of the dogs on the beach ban.
25:25The End
25:26June 2019, Sir James Bevan Environment Agency.
25:30Dear Sir James, I wrote to you to raise concerns about a serious integrity issue involving the agency.
25:37I did not receive any acknowledgement.
25:39Yes, Sir James Bevan.
25:42This is Ash Smith. Windrush against sewage pollution.
25:45We sent an email... We sent a lot of emails.
25:47Ash.
25:48What?
25:49Ash.
25:50Yes, I'll hold.
25:50I'm on a bloody phone.
25:51They want us to come in.
25:58Fucking hell.
26:00Only at the least.
26:08Very nice to meet you. Hello there, Mr Hunt. Please do sit down.
26:11Sir James is on the premises, I...
26:14He's... I think he's at a meeting.
26:17I was hoping you might be even present in the meeting.
26:21Not this kind of meeting, though. He's...
26:22I just wanted to start with a few questions about integrity.
26:27Because I see that the agency's former director of operations joined the board of British Water while he was working
26:34for the agency, which means that your COO was moonlighting for the water companies while he was regulating them.
26:42So what do we...
26:43Oh dear.
26:43What do we call that?
26:44Well, I think moonlighting is a pretty strong word.
26:46Yeah.
26:47Definition.
26:48What I would say is that Toby Willison no longer works for the agency. That's the first point. And when
26:53he...
26:54But how does that affect when he was here, the fact that he's not here isn't...
26:59I'm coming on to that. His declarations, with all due respect, his declarations of interest were noted at the time.
27:05Right.
27:05And any risks at all, and we do take these things very seriously, were appropriately managed.
27:09Yes, but then Mr. Willison was hired by a water company as it stood trial on 51 counts of sewage
27:16dumping. How is that not a case of conflict of interest?
27:19Ah, well, very clear rules, which was what I was going to say. Very clear, clear rules around conflict of
27:25interest were put in place as soon as Mr. Willison decided to take up his new job.
27:30So, he stepped out of any relevant discussions. We did everything we could to do that.
27:36Well, the judge ruled that all criminal activity in that case was masterminded from the top of the company, so
27:41was Mr. Willison involved in the decision not to prosecute southern executives?
27:46We can't comment on that.
27:48No.
27:48We can't comment on that.
27:49Yeah, we don't talk about internal meetings.
27:53Well, how many water company executives has the agency prosecuted?
27:58Well, criminal prosecution is quite a high bar.
28:02That's if we had evidence that the offence was serious enough, we wouldn't hesitate to prosecute, but there is no
28:08substantiated evidence.
28:10We've just given you evidence, you've been told you.
28:11But it's not substantiated.
28:13A board sanctioned plan for seven years of continuous dumping was not enough evidence.
28:22Thanks so much.
28:23I love you.
28:25Congratulations.
28:26Thanks so much.
28:27Thanks so much.
28:28Well, yeah, I hope that goes well.
28:41I'm going to get another one.
28:45You're going to have another Flake 99?
28:48Eileen thinks I've got an obsessive stricter.
28:51Well, she's not wrong, is she?
28:58What the hell was that?
29:00Well, did you think they'd be more grateful for our disclosures about revolving doors?
29:05Did they really think that that was all right, working for both of them at the same time?
29:09And I think you're taking it personally.
29:10I am.
29:11You know?
29:11I mean, for me, it's an occupational hazard.
29:13I feel like I've been beaten up.
29:15That's how I feel.
29:16And I've never been beaten up.
29:18We're getting somewhere.
29:19We're making a difference.
29:19We're clearly up against something bigger.
29:58I don't know.
30:00I don't know.
30:03I'm going to have to ask you guys.
30:08What's the truth?
30:09I'm going to have to be like an intense.
30:09I'm going to be like a firefighter.
30:10You can't get a firefighter.
30:42Right, see, no, she's not going to be back
30:44from football till about seven, so just tell her to put that in the micro.
30:52You look nice.
30:56What is it?
31:02You know, Ty just got that flat down the Arlander Road.
31:08He's not using.
31:09I mean, well, he said that I can stop there for a bit if I want, you know, just for
31:17what
31:17I did a Tesco job like.
31:22Yeah, good idea.
31:25Might be better, mightn't it?
31:27Yeah.
31:28Yeah.
31:32I'm going to be late, sir.
31:33Yes.
31:39All right.
31:46Yeah.
31:54See ya.
31:55See ya.
32:11See ya.
32:12Are you all right, Dad?
32:14I've got your pizza in here if you want it.
32:16I'm not hungry.
32:19I've got a project, so I might just...
32:22All right, yeah.
32:23We'll have it later, shall we?
32:24Yeah.
32:25If we get hungry.
32:26All right.
32:38Do you want anything, Bob?
32:43I've got a little special.
32:46I love you.
32:47I love you.
32:48I love you.
32:51Are you all right, Val?
32:52Hmm?
32:53God, look at you.
32:55What's going on, Mum?
33:01What's going on, Mum?
33:28Is there a sound on this?
33:30Oh, no, no.
33:31It's a variety of things you can see.
33:33Oh, no.
33:34Yeah.
33:35Let's go for it.
33:38Yeah.
33:40We actually think it's agricultural runoff.
33:44Right, yeah.
33:45Offering farms?
33:46Mm-hmm.
33:47It's almost certainly farm runoff.
33:49Almost certainly.
33:50Yeah.
33:50We believe, yeah.
33:52And we do have a responsibility to report that to the environment.
33:56The environment.
33:57Age and spills.
33:57So we'd say...
33:58Blimey.
33:59This is due to the farms.
34:01Mm-hmm.
34:01The farms.
34:03And that is what has led to this overspill.
34:07That's really nice.
34:07I love that as well.
34:08That was very good.
34:10So though there have been storm-activated overspill, the discoloration of the water is because of agricultural runoff.
34:19We are sorry about this, and we will do everything in our power to improve the situation, but some of
34:28it is not our fault.
34:29Well, I think if we can just own it.
34:30It is not our fault.
34:31Yeah, exactly.
34:32I think we just own it.
34:33It's farm's fault.
34:34I can use the hands, and I think that helps the audience to feel like I'm one of them.
34:40Yeah.
34:40You very much do fit in as well with one of them.
34:43You know, you're almost one of them in many ways.
34:46Yes.
34:47I thought, hi, viz, a pair of those wraparound goggles that kind of ski it as well.
34:51You've got those, Lizzie, yeah.
34:52And a hard hat.
34:53I hear your frustration.
34:55I really do.
34:56Smashed it.
34:57I thought it was amazing.
34:58So, you know, we've been getting a lot of these sickness reports coming in from the southwest.
35:03They've asked us if we wanted to go to a meeting down there.
35:06It's kind of a national thing.
35:07There's going to be water company bosses there, and I think we should go, shouldn't we?
35:12We've done a huge amount of research at the UK Council of Water on levels of public trust.
35:17In the water industry.
35:19And what we've found generally is that levels of public trust are actually pretty high.
35:24No, no.
35:25Well, you might laugh, but...
35:27Guy, I actually, I do get it.
35:29There's been a lot of pain.
35:30There's been a lot of frustration.
35:32We have the only bathing status river in this country.
35:34And we have 2,000 people there in the summer with their kids, with fishing nets, sitting amongst turds.
35:41We're all passionate about the environment.
35:44We're passionate about water quality.
35:45It's the driving force behind what we do.
35:48Can you answer why, then?
35:49My son's been so ill from 20, 22, after a day on the beach, and then contracted hepatitis A.
35:57That is the week before we went on our holiday.
36:02That's the week after in hospital.
36:04That's a week later when he's starting to get jaundice, and he's starting to get bilirubin.
36:10And that, that's from something called cholestasis, which affects your gallbladder.
36:15He itched like crazy.
36:17These scars, they're still around.
36:19You can't stand without them hurting.
36:21Through school, I missed about properly three, four months.
36:25And even when I was at school, I was that tired.
36:29I was dropping to sleep.
36:30I couldn't remember half the stuff I'd learned.
36:32And it took a long time to sort of build back up the sort of friendship group.
36:39And it also led to, like, a lot of bullying.
36:42People saying, oh, you went in the water, all this dirty water, human poo in it, and stuff.
36:47I used to do a lot of farming, helping my dad.
36:51It just wipes you out.
36:52You've got no energy.
36:52You can't do anything.
36:54You just had to stop.
36:57Every feedback that you give us is, you know, really, really important to us.
37:00I didn't know at the time, but Surfers Against Sewage explained that there was 342 hours of raw sewage that
37:07was released into the beach that I was swimming on.
37:09This particular strep bacteria entered my bloodstream and started growing on my heart valve.
37:15So I had to have a heart replacement.
37:16I was in hospital for six weeks.
37:19I ended up having open heart surgery.
37:21The health and well-being of our customers is at the forefront of what we do.
37:25And hearing stories like this is incredibly important to us.
37:28If we reflect on them, lessons will be learned going forwards.
37:31We can reflect on them going forwards.
37:33You've had to say, now listen to someone who's worked in the water industry for 40 years of his life.
37:38Prior to privatisation, if the infrastructure needed upgrading, it got it.
37:42If it needed bits of plant to be replaced, it got it.
37:45It was run like a military operation.
37:48Macquarie's come along.
37:50God help us.
37:51Assets stripped it.
37:53Sold land.
37:54Sold pumping stations.
37:55Built blocks of flats onto it.
37:57And decimated our infrastructure.
37:59This falls back to the government to re-nationalise this industry.
38:04ASAP.
38:08Get rid of the people who have asset stripped it.
38:12Stripped it of millions of pounds.
38:13All your profits.
38:14All your bonuses.
38:15Keir Starmer.
38:16Steve Reed, the invisible man.
38:18Do your job and re-nationalise the water industry.
38:21Well, well.
38:30Mistakes are made.
38:32But I would say this, and I'd happily go on the record.
38:34I would drink water out of any tap in the United Kingdom.
38:39Sorry, would you come to Brixham and have a glass of our water?
38:42Last year in May, we had an outbreak of cryptosporidium, as Susan Davies knows.
38:49It's obviously a privilege and a huge responsibility to run a water company.
38:55And it's one that I take very, very seriously.
38:58I was poisoned by cryptosporidium in the water.
39:01I was ill for such a very long time.
39:03Six months or more.
39:04My body was attacking itself.
39:05My immune system was attacking itself.
39:07My injuries are life-changing.
39:09What we are committed to is improving step by step.
39:12And things do go wrong.
39:13Things go wrong.
39:14Could you please explain to us why you got a 58% pay rise?
39:20I don't actually set my pay.
39:24I don't actually.
39:25It's not down to me how much I'm paid.
39:28The amount you're talking about will actually be a cost of living increase.
39:32Yeah, yeah.
39:33You earn 860 grand a year?
39:36We don't have a choice in our water provider.
39:39I come from Henley.
39:40We're in the Thames region.
39:42I know Ash and Peter well.
39:43How have we arrived in a situation where a privatised water industry is scamming the
39:49public, is taking off enormous profits and dividends for shareholders, paying huge bonuses
39:54to executives, and our children are getting vomiting and diarrhoea from doing what should
39:58come naturally.
39:59We do not trust you.
40:00Not one water company executive has ever been prosecuted and served prison time, quite
40:07honestly, which they should.
40:14There you go.
40:15Let's see.
40:16Oh, oh, oh, oh.
40:37So are you, Nicky.
41:03The river's gone, Nash, I mean.
41:07That's... and it's not coming back.
41:19How many do you reckon?
41:22Well, killed.
41:25Hundreds? Thousands?
41:26Thousands of babies, definitely.
41:33What?
41:34Ash, I'm scared that we're running out of time.
41:40What do you mean by that?
41:41That we're running out of time to make a difference.
41:46What are you talking about? Look at this. Look at this we've got.
41:48This is... it's the best stuff so far.
41:50But nothing's going to happen, is it, Ash?
41:52What do you mean?
41:53In terms of water, they're going to make a statement saying that the environment is their number one priority, and
42:01the agency, they're just going to launch an investigation that we'll never hear about again, and they're acting as though
42:10we don't exist.
42:11So what are you saying?
42:14I... I don't know how long we've got.
42:20We're not going to make a difference. There's no time left to make a difference.
42:24What are you talking about? Look at... look at this we just shot.
42:29But it doesn't matter...
42:30This isn't... this is not the time to pack it in.
42:32But it doesn't matter what we show them. It doesn't matter... I mean, we could show them dead bodies floating
42:36down the river. They still wouldn't do anything about it, would they?
42:39Right. We just go back, you go and watch some bloody jazz. When you think you're... when you think you're
42:45beaten, you don't give...
42:47We're going to the right channels, we're doing the right thing, and nothing's coming back. And nothing's come back for
42:52years.
42:53What do you want to do?
42:55It... it's exhausting. We get nothing back.
42:59I'm not stopping. I can't.
43:13Hello. Yeah, no. I'm... yeah, we're on the paper.
43:32May 2020. Subject, Environment Agency Complicit in Lawbreaking.
43:37Dear Sir James, over the past two years, Professor Peter Hammond and I have been documenting chronic offending by Thames
43:43Water.
43:45Thames have been using our river as a cheap way to carry raw sewage out to sea and making vast
43:50profits doing so.
43:51The Environment Agency has been turning a blind eye and misrepresenting facts to the public.
44:13Peter.
44:16Peter.
44:17Peter.
44:18It's the middle of the night.
44:20What are you doing?
44:24Peter.
44:25I was worried. I couldn't sleep.
44:28Worried about what?
44:33About all the things that... all the things that live in the river.
44:40You didn't put your hands in it, did you?
44:44No.
44:45Okay.
44:49There's nothing you can do now.
44:52No.
44:54No.
44:56Okay.
44:58So...
45:00Shall we go back to bed?
45:02Yeah.
45:03Yeah.
45:14No.
45:15No.
45:15No.
45:16No.
45:17No.
45:19No.
45:21No.
45:22Yeah.
45:52I'll see you next time.
46:13We have the best quality water since the Industrial Revolution.
46:16Waterstone Brown.
46:18From today, we are ending on-site inspections for Cats 3 and 4.
46:22What exactly do you want us to do?
46:25Reuben! Reuben!
46:29We need another whistleblower.
46:31The regulation isn't real.
46:32The government wants us to look like a regulator, but they won't let us do our job.
46:35You have a duty not to disclose confidential information to anyone not authorized to receive it.
Comments