Imagine, if you will, a flowing river descending through the rich woodlands and mountains of the Scottish Highlands. On either side of the banks, dew forms on blades of grass like clear, transient diamonds that will soon disappear into the rich, untrodden earth. The water gushes along as ospreys and eagles hunt for prey, then crashes over waterfalls at the Tweedsmuir Hills then meanders down into Megget Reservoir. A majestic journey I’m sure you’ll agree, but it doesn’t stop there. The water is carried through 28 miles of Victorian brick tunnels into Edinburgh to be treated and eventually sent gurgling through the taps of housewives, lawyers, cleaners, and chartered surveyors, all of whom call Edinburgh their home.
Now, to most of you, I suspect there’s nothing extraordinary about this system; we have reservoirs here in England that could equally be described in such a thespian and ostentatious tongue. Yes, I concede that is true. You may also argue that our water is not so much different from the Scots. And yes, I concede that is also true. Indeed, the point of this article is not the opportunity for me to live out my dreams of being a water sommelier by contesting the blatant inequality between the taste of English and Scottish water. No, my issue is with the privatisation, and how we might have something to learn from Scotland’s water habits.
To truly understand where we went wrong with our water we must discuss a short history of water privatisation and nationalisation, which is ironically rather dry, however, I shall try to keep it short. At the turn of the 19th-century, nearly all water companies were privately owned. However, through the work of Joseph Chamberlain (Neville’s dad) water came to be considered as a public health necessity - rather than a commodity. Water was supplied, as Karen Baker writes in an incredibly exciting piece titled ‘Neoliberalising Nature?’, "with the goal of universal provision [priced] on a concept of social equity: household supply was not metered, and bills were linked to property value." This continued for some time as local government-maintained responsibility for the water supply well into Heath’s government where it was then reorganised into ten regional authorities. Now, as with most things in the 1970s (aside from the music), things got bad. Chronic underfunding and lack of investment from central government resulted in investment in the water sector being just one-third of what it had been in 1970.
Enter malcontent, stage left:
At the start of her second term in 1983, our old friend Margaret Thatcher - before she starved the coal miners but after she starved the children - sought a frenzied and putridly neoliberal campaign of privatising anything and everything she could. Between the privatisation of British Telecom in 1983 then British Gas in 1986, Thatcher tried not once but twice to privatise Britain’s water industry. Now, it is clear why some may have thought this an essential idea in improving water management. By introducing market institutions to the management of natural resources, goals of efficiency and environmental conservation could be easily reconciled. However, public opinion had not favoured the privatisation of water in 1984 or 1986, and it was not until her re-election in 1987 with barrels of confidence (and an exceedingly large bouffant) did the party succeeded in privatising all ten of Heath’s water authorities. After the industry was privatised in 1989, Thatcher’s Conservative government claimed that the sell-off would generate funds to tackle major infrastructure work. But water prices significantly increased – 46% in the first year alone. It didn’t stop there, in 1994, almost “2 million British households defaulted on their water bills, and over a million others were behind in payments”, as Dhlamini’s recent article in “The Jacobin” explores. Moreover, in 2021 the Environment Agency saw over 403,000 spills of sewage into England’s rivers and seas, totaling more than 3.1 million hours of spillage. Nine privatised water companies in England have taken on debts of £48 billion in the past three decades; this debt cost them £1.3 billion in interest in 2019 alone. But rather than invest in water management solutions that would have greatly reduced the pollution, water companies have paid more than £2 billion a year on average to shareholders since privatisation. So it is clear that the privatisation of the water industry has failed here. But what is so different in Scotland?
In 2002, a merger of West of Scotland Water Authority, East of Scotland Water Authority, and North of Scotland Water Authority under the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002 created an authority by the name of Scottish Water. Since then, the country has invested nearly 35% more per household in infrastructure than the privatised English water companies. At the same time, it charges users 14% less and pays no dividends to shareholders. A different, and more successful course of events, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Water, no matter if it comes from a fresh Scottish spring or a less fresh English spring is an inherent human right. Indeed, water is essential for the very maintenance of life, thus it is completely unfathomable to me that despite the mass economic failings of Britain’s water privatization, and despite the clear success of Scotland’s water nationalisation, our water is still privatised. This is not just an issue in the UK but all over the world: from Bangladesh and India to Zimbabwe. Water not only connects nations, it sustains them: over 40% of the world’s population relies on fresh water from rivers that run through two or more countries. The perilous neoliberal reforms that were relentlessly promoted during the 1980s by multinational corporations and international financial agencies are having a devastating impact today all over the globe. Perhaps it is now time to tilt our heads up to the Scots for a few droplets of advice.
Works Discussed:
Bakker, Karen (2005), "Neoliberalizing Nature? Market Environmentalism in Water Supply in England and Wales", Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95 (3): 542–565
Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2017) - "Water Use and Stress". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress
Dhlamini, Beauty (2022)- 'The Privatization of Water Is a Threat to Global Health', Jacobin Magazine: https://jacobinmag.com/2022/04/global-water-privatization-public-health-climate
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