Zack Polanski ‘absolutely right’ about privatisation threatening water security, water campaigner says
'Leaky pipes and a lack of reservoirs are inevitable outcomes of privatisation.'
In his major speech on the climate crisis yesterday (August 6), Green Party leader Zack Polanski made the case for taking water back into public ownership as part of a suite of policies he wants to see implemented to mitigate against the impacts of extreme heat.
He said: “privatised water companies – they’ve failed to build a single new reservoir since 1992, [and] are losing nearly three billion litres of water a day from leaky pipes”, before later adding: “To secure our water supply, prevent drought and protect our food system – we need to bring water back into public hands. Right now, money is flowing out of our hands into the pockets of shareholders – just like water is flowing out of those companies’ leaky pipes in the middle of a drought.”
That call has been welcomed by water campaigners. Anti privatisation group We Own It – who have long campaigned for taking water into public ownership in order to lower bills and invest in infrastructure – said Polanski was “absolutely right” about privatisation threatening water security.
Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It told Left Foot Forward: “Polanski is absolutely right to blame privatised water companies for threatening our water security while the climate collapses.
“Water companies create profit by siphoning our money – as billpayers – out into the pockets of faraway shareholders and banks. This means that, for decades, our water infrastructure has been starved of the investment it so desperately needs. Leaky pipes and a lack of reservoirs are inevitable outcomes of privatisation.
“It is appalling that we’ve just had the wettest winter on record, and now more than half of the country is in drought. This is a crisis that could and should have been avoided through public ownership of our water
“As Polanski correctly observes, only under a publicly owned water system will all of our money as billpayers be directly invested into fixing infrastructure so that the public can be protected as temperatures get hotter.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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