At the launch of her department’s cleaner water plan (Thérèse Coffey accused of ‘throwing in the towel’ over sewage scandal, 4 April), the environment minister, Thérèse Coffey, suggested that to overcome the water pollution crisis we would have to return to the “natural state of our rivers from the year 1840”.
This is ironic, as it was then that the limits of privatised water services were becoming increasingly clear. Rather than being in some kind of “natural state”, British rivers were being polluted on an industrial scale in the early 19th century, and private water companies were one of the main culprits, especially in London.
