Water companies are spreading disinformation to ‘manufacture doubt’ about sewage spilling

Privatised water companies are under investigation by environmental regulators for discharging sewage for 3.6 million hours in 2023 into rivers and the sea. Environmental scientists have found that these companies are using disinformation tactics, similar to those tobacco and fossil fuel companies use, to control perceptions about the harm they are doing.

Water companies playing out of the corporate propaganda playbook

The researchers compared the tried and tested tactics with the communications of the nine largest water and sewages companies in England. They found that the water companies have used 22 of 28 tactics from the corporate propaganda playbook to downplay environmental damage, delay action and bring scientific findings into question.

Lead author of the research, Professor Alex Ford, of the University of Portsmouth’s school of the environment and life sciences and institute of marine sciences, told the Guardian:

Water and sewage companies have prolonged environmental injustice by using a playbook of tactics other large polluters have relied upon in the past to mislead the public and influence government agencies or laws.

The paper calls for greater regulation of the communications of companies, at a time when the Labour Party government is presenting regulation as ‘anti-growth’. This example shows that, actually, regulation is often about the standards we introduce in society. But Labour seems more concerned with putting profit first.

One way the water companies deflected blame away from under-investment in infrastructure was to hold the public as mainly responsible for sewage spills. The paper explores a campaign across water companies blaming wet wipe flushing: “‘The Unflushables’ (Southern Water), ‘Unblocktober’ (Thames Water), ‘Waging War on Flushable Wipes’ (Severn Trent Water), ‘Stop the Block’ (South West Water) and ‘Wipe out Wipes’ (Wessex Water)”. The environmental scientists note that this is only a minor issue and confuses the greater picture of a lack of investment causing sewage spills.

Water companies also suggested that the only other option instead of sewage spills in rivers was discharging into hospitals and schools, as if the infrastructure couldn’t be improved.

Further, the report found companies have sanitised language around raw sewage spills through rebranding sewage centres as for “water recycling”.

Public ownership and accountability

Since privatisation, water companies have paid out £78bn in dividends – money that could’ve been invested in infrastructure to improve the sewage system.

There is a correlation between public ownership of the water system and a cleaner environment. Countries with water in 100% public ownership like Cyprus, Austria, and Malta have above 95% excellent water in bathing sites. By contrast, the UK has an average of 66.3% excellent water, putting us near the bottom of our European counterparts.

Featured image via the Canary