RECENT reports of water pollution on Dorset beaches gives cause for considerable alarm, both to local people and holidaymakers.

Of course, Wessex Water’s attempts to play down these incidents but the general pattern seems clear.

In the recent hot but stormy weather threatening flash-floods, the water-companies have chosen to discharge sewage from rivers and beaches.

Privatisation in 1991 was supposed to provide more investment but since then not a single reservoir has been built in England and Wales.

Not surprisingly however, English and Welsh water companies have paid out £72bn to their shareholders since privatisation.

Meanwhile the chief executives of these companies have taken home £58m home between them and some are even said to be advertising for second jobs.

Clearly they regard their work as simply an opportunity to make money with no regard for the public interest. 
You may ask, why do they get away with it? Surely there is public regulation of such an essential industry? Indeed there is.

Unfortunately, however, between 2014 to 2017 the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs set about cutting the amount spent on monitoring pollution levels in rivers and beaches by £24m, so that its manpower is now quite inadequate for the task.

Martin Salter of the Angling Trust has complained of a ‘growing tsunami’ of pollution ‘unleashed onto Britain’s waterways’ and this includes our beaches.

And who, you might ask was the minister responsible for the cuts in the water-monitoring service intended to protect our beaches and rivers, our health and our wildlife?

Why, it was Liz Truss, now running for office as Prime Minister, anxious as usual to reduce taxes for better-off people. They call it ‘slimming the state’. 
So in future, no doubt, should swimmers at Weymouth or Portland find themselves paddling in filthy water, (I put it politely!) they may be inclined to think of her. 

Dr Alan Chedzoy
Spa Road
Weymouth