The Murky bottom Line: The Filthy Truth Beneath the Surface

The clocks spring forward and the evenings are stretching out.  The familiar pull toward the water is rioting inside me as I am trapped at a screen deciphering profits and spreadsheets.

My heart beats like the paddle-strokes and my soul is craving the peace only found on a water.  I want that rhythmic connection to the glass-like surface of one of our rare chalk streams or the bold flow of a river, or the rolling pulse of the sea...

...but lately, that peace has been replaced by a simmering, justified rage.

I look at the water and want to dive in, but the data tells us to stay back.  What used to be a humanistic treasure has become a dumping ground.

The Root of the Rot

The rivers and our coastlines are choking.   Back in 1989 the UK water industry was carved up and sold off with the lie that people focused purely on profits would somehow protect this vital natural asset.  It was promised that privatization would bring efficiency and investment. Instead, it brought a culture where dividends are squeezed from the stones of crumbling Victorian infrastructure and the shares pass hands so many times that those who hold them now never need to set foot in a drop of our precious waters.

For over three decades, the priority hasn’t been the health of our ecosystem or the safety of our swimmers.  It has been the bottom line, cutting corners in investment because fines are cheaper and while aging pipes groan under the pressure, the gatekeepers have been looking the other way, allowing the very lifeblood of our countryside be poisoned.

Raw Truth, Raw Sewage

"Spills" is a polite word and it is a load of “Crap” in more than one sense.  It sounds accidental, no more serious than a spill of a glass of wine, but what we are actually witnessing is a systemic betrayal. 

Raw sewage is being pumped into our waterways with a frequency that should be unthinkable in a modern nation.

It is a vile reality to confront while trying to enjoy a morning paddle. We aren't just looking at water, but instead the physical evidence and manifestation of neglect.  The reek of corporate greed is masking the scent of the salt air.  

It is enraging because it is avoidable!  

When it is cheaper to pay a fine or issue an apology than to fix the broken bones of our water system, or when any penalty can be recouped through the customer; the very people being poisoned, why bother?

The Power of the Outcry

Silence is the best friend of a failing system.  They count on us being too busy, too tired or too overwhelmed to speak up, but the water belongs to the land and the land belongs to us!

When we see the brown plumes in the surf, when we see the "no swimming" signs popping up like weeds, we cannot just turn away and find a different beach.  We have to call it out.  We have to demand that profits and bonuses and dividends stops being more important than our country life blood.

This isn't about being "polite" anymore.  It’s about being loud. 

So Bones asks you to write letters, request information of “Spills” and start the call for re-nationalisation of our water.

Support monitors, share posts calling for action, share the data you get from your letters requesting it.  Our waterways are the veins of this country; it’s time we stopped letting them be treated like a sewer.

Bones reflection

The longer days are a gift, but they also shine a light on the things we’d rather not see.  I’ve mentioned before that accepting reality is the only way to tackle the hard truth of the present.  This season, as you head to the coast or the riverbank, take your board, but if you love what I love, take your voice too.  The water can’t defend itself.  

That’s our job

Bones