Six parallel lawsuits against English and Welsh water companies contest the effects of the 1989 water privatization.
The cases allege that the firms have systematically underreported raw sewage leaks to the English Environment Agency and water regulator Ofwat.
Pollution reports are one factor for the agencies to determine the prices that the companies can demand.
Hence, the lawsuits allege that the underreporting allowed the firms to overcharge their customers.
The claims are brought by environmental and water consultant Carolyn Roberts on behalf of more than 20 million households.
Professor Roberts is represented by the law firm Leigh Day.
The first claim against Severn Trent Water is estimated to have a value of £330 million.
Further claims will address alleged environmental law violations by Thames Water, United Utilities, Anglian Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water.
Leigh Day estimates the collective action’s value to be £800 million.
Effects of Privatization Still Disputed
More than 30 years after the 1989 water privatization, the effects on England and Wales are still disputed.
Proponents point to higher investment levels achieved since privatization as well as what they see as a higher quality and more reliable water supply.
Critics, on the other hand, counter that privatization has brought less investment in infrastructure and higher costs for customers.
According to an analysis by the Guardian, over 70% of English water companies are controlled by international investors.
Most of these are from countries with strong cultural and political ties to the UK – the US, Canada, and Australia.
But this does not preclude a future concentration in the hands of investors from more hostile countries.
Pressure on Fresh Water Supplies is Going to Increase
Of the 1,338 million cubic kilometers of water on the earth, only 2.5 to 3% are fresh water and only 0.5% are available for human consumption.
(Around 20% of that is located in the Lake Baikal in Russia.)
The earth’s water system is closed and the overall amount of it does not change.
But heavily polluted fresh water might become unusable for human consumption, which gives the collective action against the water companies additional urgency.
More fundamentally, climate change impacts the global distribution of water in ways that threaten human lives and livelihoods.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that around 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least part of the year.
While only 7% of all disaster events worldwide between 1970 and 2019 have been related to droughts, these contributed to more than a third of disaster-related deaths.
The European Environmental Agency (EEA) reports that between 1960 and 2010, renewable water resources per capita across Europe decreased by 24%.
Between 2000 and 2021, every year around 4.5% of the EU’s territory have been affected by droughts.
This situation is going to get worse, with the EEA estimating that heatwaves will increase, and summer precipitation will decrease until 2030.
With most technologies to mitigate climate change depending on water as well, preserving it as a common good must become a global priority.