Rapid showers and no flushing toilets: drought pushes Lundy island to the brink
A dry summer has left the Bristol Channel island critically short of water, forcing visitor caps and talk of evacuating its 28 residentsTom Carr was peering up at the clouds scudding around the island of Lundy, 10 miles off the coast of north Devon.…
Revealed: the ‘black box’ wastewater trade that rakes in millions for UK utility companies
Exclusive: Firms made more than £340m last year from processing industrial and commercial wastewater at sewage works that are unable to remove many chemical pollutantsWater companies in the UK made more than £340m in revenue last year by pouring billions…
Stockpile food – and wash your hands: is that really how to prepare for environmental catastrophe? | George Monbiot
The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisisWould you mind fixing the NHS? And while you’re at it, could you please build an anti-missile system in your garden? Then regulate…
South West Water owner taps investors to fix infrastructure after sewage spills
Pennon slashes dividend and launches £550m cash call ‘to drive improved outcomes for customers and communities’Burnham, take note: water shareholders have their usesThe owner of embattled South West Water has slashed its dividend and launched a cash call…
‘It’s shocking really’: Devon community tracks River Dart sewage spills
Citizen environmentalists create online platform that flags spills in real time and highlights repeatedly polluted spots The easy thing for the people who live on the banks of the River Dart in Devon might have been to grumble and groan about the sewage…
Utilities are public services – and should not be run as businesses | Letters
Readers respond to an article by Will Hutton and Andy Haldane suggesting that they could be run for the public benefitWill Hutton and Andy Haldane advocate “turning [utilities] into public-benefit companies with a primary, constitutional objective of…
‘Water yes, mining no!’: the 87-year-old farmer who became a nature hero in Colombia
Porfirio Garcés is one of the ‘Jerico 11’, who face kidnapping charges after opposing a copper mine. Now, with a far-right president prioritising extraction, their fight has become more urgentIn the rural hamlet of Palo Cabildo in Colombia’s western…
The Guardian view on Thames Water: Andy Burnham should nationalise this failed monopoly | Editorial
Bill payers should not fund another rescue for financiers of the water industry. Public ownership can end the cycle of extraction and failureThis month, a cross-party parliamentary committee said Thames Water should be placed in temporary state control…
Most of UK’s essential food supply grown in drought-risk areas, report warns
Keys crops such as cereals, potatoes, sugar and oils grown in areas with moderate to very high riskThe vast majority of the UK’s essential foods, including cereals, potatoes, sugar and oil, are grown in areas of England rated as having a moderate to very…
‘The eels were climbing out of the water to die’: why did every fish in this idyllic lake perish overnight?
Furnace Brook in East Sussex was home to carp, tench, bream, roach and trout – and 15 trailer-loads had to be buried. The mystery led to a neighbouring farm, and a story of waste, pollution and dirty rivers that reveals a lot about Britain todayWhen…