23/12/2025
As temperatures dropped and the streets of Barcelona were flooded after five days of rain , 400 people who had mostly come from other parts of the world were evicted from a squatted disused factory without even a tent for shelter. Imagine what that’s like and for a citizen of Gaza city living in an apartment block of a modern city when the electricity, water supply and then the very walls disintegrate under the force of un-challenged aerial bombing. You are ordered in your own interests to go to safe areas that are unsafe and thence to a tent on waste ground. Then the rain falls and you and your family are flooded in your tent. This is not a camping trip, but your home for the foreseeable and the bedding is soggy.
A Ghanain flood prophet, Ebo Noah appeared in a Mercedes-Benz to announce a great flood that would mark the end of the world for Christmas, gathering followers and supervising the building of a giant ark. The great flood did not occur, and he told his followers that God had given them time to build more arks in which they would be saved. Elsewhere without regard to place or belief floods continue to proliferate. In Southern Greece tractors were swept into the sea; in the Los Angeles area and other parts of Southern California they led to the declaration of a State of Emergency. The flooding of large parts of the Indonesian island of Sumatra as a result of a cyclone and torrential rain in September has still not been addressed by the central Indonesian government. Angry residents have taken to raising white flags in protest at the lack of official help. In Aceh, the worst hit province they have no access to electricity, medical supplies or safe drinking water.
Congo Donfag Mining (CDM) a subsidiary of the Chinese Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd has been accused of contaminating both rivers and the drinking water of areas of Lubumbashi, the second city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its activities suspended. Contaminated water leaked from its facilities in the Kssanfa area of the Annexe commune north of the city and then flooded the main Moise market of the north of the city. The same CDM had been accused of dumping polluted water in 2022.
In Mexico, there have been demonstrations, road blockages including the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border crossing and assemblies of the Open Water Parliament to contest and protest the proposed National Water Law. The Law makes some moderate reforms to the existing private and public system, restricting for instance private water outfits from transferring their concessions to other private hands, but it “keeps the old privatizing structure intact and treats water as a market, not a human right.” This is in a context in which “families spend a large amount of their income on buying bottled water” and when the 2012 amendment to the Constitution that asserted the human right to water has never been enacted. However, there are now 28,000 community-run water systems which are making water such a right.
Floods in Vietnam caused the deaths of 93 people with many folk missing and with a total cost of over $3 billion. Mountainous Dak Lah its biggest coffee producing province was especially affected. Farmers are still assessing the extent of damage to crops in the world’s top producer of robusta beans. Coffee prices have already increased by over 30 % in the last year and will continue to rise. Human-driven Climate Change has left the country more exposed to stronger and more frequent typhoons. The impacts have also been exacerbated by failures in resilience strategy, including “deforestation, poorly planned urban development, land reclamation, and the obstruction of natural drainage systems,” many of the characteristics described in the GRAB column on this site,
The groundwater found in both Kogi state of Nigeria and its capital city Lagos has been found to be polluted. Their boreholes and wells have been contaminated with concentrations of cadmium, nitrites and microrganisms. These augment the risk of water-borne diseases. In some instances, there are excessive levels of lead.
A report from the USA indicates that more than 5,500 toxic sites could face coastal flooding in the USA and Puerto RIco by 2100 and 3,800 by 205O due to rising sea levels. The consequences will be unequal. “Racial residential segregation and the inequitable distribution of stormwater infrastructure further contribute to racialized patterns of flood risk across US cities.”
In Cambodia, a country of the most ruthless and widespread land grabbing and oligarchic greed the O’Ta Bouk River which sustains the Brao Indigenous community has been poisoned by toxic run-off from unregulated mining for gold and ‘rare earths’. It is one of many rivers of the Mekong Delta being poisoned in this way. Unregulated covers nominally legal and nominally illegal mining. The anxieties of the global “investor” for his/her comfort in uncertain times has seen the price of gold rise to such a degree as to make for a glut of such mining.
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25/11/2025
Congo Donfang Mining (CDM) a subsidiary of the Chinese Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd has been accused of contaminating both rivers and the drinking water of areas of Lubumbashi, the second city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and its activities suspended. Contaminated water leaked from its facilities in the Kssanda area of the Annexe commune north of the city and then flooded the main Moise Market of the north of the city. The same CDM had been accused of dumping polluted water in 2022.
There have been demonstrations, road blockages─including the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border crossing and assemblies of the Open Water Parliament to contest the proposed National Water Law. The Law makes some moderate reforms to the existing private and public system, restricting for instance private water outfits from transferring their concessions to other private hands, but it “keeps the old privatizing structure intact and treats water as a market, not a human right.” This is in a context in which “families spend a large amount of their income on buying bottled water” and when the 2012 amendment to the Constitution that asserted the human right to water has never been enacted. However there are now 28,000 community-run water systems which are making water such a right.
Floods in Vietnam caused the deaths of 93 people with many folk missing and with a total cost of over $3 billion. Mountainous Dak Lak its biggest coffee producing province was especially affected. Farmers are still assessing the extent of damage to crops in the world’s top producer of robusta beans. Coffee prices have already increased by over 30% in the last year and will continue to rise. Human-driven Climate Change has left the country more exposed to stronger and more frequent typhoons. The impacts have also been exacerbated by failures in resilience strategy, including “deforestation, poorly planned urban development, land reclamation, and the obstruction of natural drainage systems,” many of the characteristics described in the GRAB column on this site.
The groundwater found in both Kogi state of Nigeria and its capital city Lagos has been found to be polluted with boreholes and wells contaminated with concentrations of cadmium, nitrites and microrganisms. These augment the risk of water-borne diseases. In some instances there are excessive levels of lead.
A report from the USA indicates that more than 5,500 toxic sites could face coastal flooding in the USA and Puerto RIco by 2100 and 3,800 by 205O due to rising sea levels. The consequences will be unequal. “Racial residential segregation and the inequitable distribution of stormwater infrastructure further contribute to racialized patterns of flood risk across US cities.”
In Cambodia, a country of the most ruthless and widespread land grabbing and oligarchic greed the O’Ta Bouk river which sustains the Brao Indigenous community has been poisoned by toxic run-off from unregulated mining for gold and ‘rare earths’. It is one of many rivers of the Mekong Delta being poisoned in this way. Unregulated here covers nominally legal and nominally illegal mining. The anxieties of the global “investor” for his/her comfort in uncertain times has seen the price of gold rise to such a degree as to make for a glut of such mining.
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15/11/2025
Some justice may arise from a London court’s decision to hold capital-rich mining company BHP Group liable for the 2015 dam collapse in Mariana, Brazil. The dam held back a vast square-metre extent of “waste” water from its iron-ore mining site. The dam had been built higher than was safe for the sake of expanding profitability. The resultant collapse saw the destruction of hundreds of homes and the adjacent river poisoned by the toxic sludge that poured down. The river is central to the lives and livelihoods of the local Indigenous and other poor people.
England’s water industry loses over a trillion litres of water to leaky pipes, routinely dumps sewage in rivers and lakes when these are tangible and pleasurable public assets. It has paid nearly £88bn in dividends, not built a signal reservoir since 1989 and continues to neglect investment. It has nearly 1,200 criminal convictions. Its privatised industry has ripped-off customers but defended its actions with support from governments who don’t want to bring the industry into public ownership. Instead they put out utterly misleading financial information about the cost of nationalisation.
In addition to the effects of climate-change augmented hurricanes; an agriculture additionally decimated by subsidized US imports; an impotent state with nothing to offer its people dissolving into gangs; a devastating earthquake; a false accusation of being responsible for HIV/AIDS; and, until recently, repaying the slave-owners overthrown at the end of the 18th century, Haiti is now subject to the water-borne disease of cholera. A disease reportedly eradicated in the last century was brought to the country by UN troops who came to bring order after the earthquake of 2010 which annihilated the town of Léogâne and much of the capital Port-au-Prince. Supposedly eradicated again, the disease has now re-appeared in the country, as climate change prompts outbreaks of Yellow and Dengue fever across Latin America.
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24/08/2025
La Popote, a French-style restaurant in the North of England does not want non-drinkers to feel left out when it comes to being the connoisseur. To this end they are offering clients a menu of bottled waters with a £19.00 “delicate, salty” Vidago at the top of the menu.
Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan is on the verge of having its water sources run completely dry and could be the first modern capital to run out of drinking water due to falling aquifer levels. Millions now face displacement. The city depends on groundwater from the nearest mountains which have had no snow and they do not have the infrastructure to deal with the heavy rainfalls characteristic of the present global temperature.
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01/08/2025
Demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of this decade, and more than half of the world’s food production will be at risk of failure in the next 25 years, according to the biggest report yet on the state of the world’s water resources, published last autumn.
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11/07/2025
The indigenous community of central Queensland, Australia are keeping up their fight with the Adani oligarchy and its Carmichael coal mine. The Indian oligarchy with very close ties to the Hindu nationalist Modi government survived a financial scandal that the know-alls predicted would bring it to its knees and has plenty of the contracts for making an infrastructure for the capitalist class in India, ports and airports. Its Carmichael mine threatens the sacred site of Doon Gambulla Springs which itself is connected to a much bigger underground water system that prevents desertification of these Indigenous lands. Adani’s own groundwater review used methods “not fit for purpose”. Independent evidence shows the contamination of that water by the mine. The legal system asserts the absolute rights of the mining company against those who live there using the same arguments of Efficiency an Progress that have been used for the last 400 years to take the land exclusively of Indigenous an/or poor people.
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02/07/2025
The Trump Administration in the USA has reportedly expanded a list of words and phrases no longer considered acceptable, reports PEN AMERICA, the writers’ association, which includes “safe drinking water” as well as “abortion” and “climate change.” Unacceptable means there are consequences if such words or phrases are used. Any institution or researcher in receipt of any public funding who uses them will have the money withdrawn. Government agencies have been ordered to remove these words & phrases from websites. The Department of Agriculture, already under fire for acknowledging the need for immigrant labour in the country’s agricultural sector must remove any mention of water, soil or air pollution.
“Be a shower superhero, in just four minutes! – Turn your daily rinse into a fun challenge: pick your favourite four minute song, hit play, and race the beat! Can you finish your shower before the final chorus? Save water, save time and feel like a hero – all before the music stops!”.
Southern Water email: “Kent, now is the time to save water!”. Southern Water, which supplies 2.5 million customers across south-east England, has proposed to raise water bills by 73% to £727 under its five-year business plan to 2030. In 2021, they were fined a record £90m by the Environment Agency for sewage spillages and two years later, CEO Lawrence Gosden received a bonus as part of a £764,000 pay package, up from £428,000, details the company’s 2023-24 annual report.
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22/06/2025
Just 40% of drinking water production remains functional in Gaza. Apart from the destruction of reservoirs, sewage systems and waste water treatment plants, an acute shortage of fuel now hampers the workings of what remains. Imaginative though we may try to be, it is hard to imagine of dying of thirst as well as risking one’s life not to starve to death. The reality is that combined with poor nutrition, the lack of safe drinking water means that one “outcome” is that watery diarrhoea accounts for one in four recorded diseases in Gaza.
Tik Tok is in advanced negotiations to set up a giant Data Centre in Pecém in the Brazilian state of Ceará. Such Data Centres require large amounts of water to cool their computers. Pecém like the region as a whole has always recorded periods of drought. Due to climate change the frequency and intensity of drought events is expected to increase. An advantage for Tik Tok is the relatively low energy cost foe the Pecém site; its hydroelectric station would supply it but is itself already seeking ways to reduce its own water consumption as is its busy port.
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21/06/2025
Electricite de France SA has announced that a heat wave that’s spreading across the country may force it to cut nuclear output as of the 25th June due to the rising temperature of the Rhone river that’s used for cooling some of its reactors. Production restrictions are likely, which will particularly affect the Bugey nuclear power plant.
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29/04/2025
Flooding goes global. From Nigeria to Ecuador ; to Texas and Oklahoma in the USA; to Valverde province in the Dominican Republic floods are everywhere and each time “unprecedented”, they say.
In European Scotland, Scottish Water, a private profit seeking-and-taking company, has, to cut its costs, spilled enough sewage into the country’s waterways in 2024 “to fill 12,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. Even the open sea is not safe, folk end up in hospital with gastroenteritis after a dip.
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03/02/2025
The poorest people in Delhi’s Chamakayopui district faced a shortage of drinking water as temperatures reached “unprecedented” highs of 49.9 degrees Celsius (121F). Free water deliveries were cut. Buying water cost half the average income. Then the water did come, as flash floods at the same time as in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. For the poor The worldwide climate emergency “If the right one don’t get you, then the left one will.”
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05/01/2025
In 2017 El Salvador became the first country to ban metals mining in its territory. This followed a sustained and popular campaign for non-toxic drinikng water to be available to the population at large. The present government regime of President Bukele has reversed the decision to open up the country to a host of transnational mining companies eager for the country’s gold deposits in the name of Progress. The government of Bukele who calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator” is dictatorial in the name of eliminating “gang” violence. It got rid of the country’s Supreme Court judges to pursue a war not against “gangs” but the people. This allowed for the softening up process in advance of the mining decision that started with the arrest of 5 of the environmental activists who had worked for the 2017 ban.
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18/09/2024
In December 2023, Mr. Ian Burn registers an email complaint with the UK Consumer Council for Water. “I live in a single dwelling with a residential and commercial part supplied by Affinity Water (residential) and Castle Water (commercial). The commercial part runs off a sub-meter which has not been acknowledged by Castle Water but is present on the Affinity Water paperwork. I’ve now received an additional bill from Southern Water and have no idea what this is for. There seems to be a great deal of confusion between the various companies and I would like a clear explanation of who I’m paying and what I’m paying for”.
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Customer phone call made to Castle Water sometime June 2024
…dial tone…..
Castle Water: Automated Voice: Thank you for contacting Castle Water. To help us improve the services we provide, calls may be recorded. For customers in England press 1, customers in Scotland press 2. Please make a valid selection.
Ian Burn (IB): (Presses 1)
AV: Please enter your 7 digit Castle Water account number……
IB: (Enters account number)
24 minutes on hold with recorded ambient noise: Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with a disco beat background.
Castle Water: Human Voice (CW): Can you please confirm your account details Mr Burn and for security purposes: your full name, address, email address, telephone number and memorable name.
IB: (Confirms details verbally)
CW: How can we help you today Mr Burn?
IB: I seem to be paying twice for my water supply because your company haven’t registered the existence of a sub-meter on the property. There’s a water meter outside the house I think, which serves both upstairs and downstairs and calculates supply. There’s a separate meter inside the property which calculates supply again. The problem is that this sub-meter is connected to the outside meter – so essentially – I’m paying twice for the same supply.
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“The situation in Spain has turned grave enough to warrant State response this week. Huge new investments in desalination facilities were announced, seemingly sped up after farmer revolts, partly over water unavailability. They marched under ‘OUR END YOU STARVE’ on tractors blocking motorways & the Tarragona Port. But a problem with such a solution is that the millions of litres of salty brine produced by mass desalination would then need to be disposed of in the sea killing off biodiversity and food sources there. And of course, tourism. Rich hotels in Lloret de Mar just bought their own 1 million desalination truck yesterday as its illegal to fill swimming pools, but the Catalan Generalitat has said it may intervene to prevent such ‘individual/tourist orientated solutions’. The first municipalities have announced 3000 euro fines for watering your gardens.” Email. February 2024
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CW: Well Mr Burn, this is confusing. Let’s check the paperwork – give me a few minutes (5 minutes on hold)…… So, let’s see what we can do to help. Would it be possible for you turn on all the taps downstairs and tell me what’s happening to the dial on the internal sub-meter…..
IB …..Hang on a minute, I have difficulties with mobility and don’t know where the meters are. Would it be possible for you to send someone out to check this?
CW:…. I’m afraid not Mr Burn and I’m so sorry to hear about your health concerns. Have these been registered with the company? It might be possible to book a technician but there’s a separate charge for this and if no fault is found, you will be liable for an additional call-out fee of £70.
IB: (frustrated and anxious tone) I can’t afford £70 quid but I’ve got no choice….. I’ll have to search. Where do I find the meter?
CW: Do you know where the water boiler is….?
IB: …. Yes.
CW:…. Well, follow the pipework from the boiler and you should find a meter, normally inside a cupboard.
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Setting: Mongolia sometime between 1900-1930: A rich merchant mistrusts his guide because he is too friendly with the coolie (indentured Asian labourer) who carries the baggage; so he dismisses him. The coolie then takes on the role of the guide but loses the way in the ‘Yahi’ Desert; they run short of water; and when the coolie approaches him with a water bottle, the merchant thinks he’s going to attack, and shoots and kills him. A court judges the case, decides that it was an act of self-defence and acquits the merchant . The rule is that the worker must want to attack his employer, and the merchant could not be expected to know that there was an exception. The ‘Exception and the Rule’ (Die Ausnahme und die Regel). Berthold Brecht. School Play. 1930.
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IB: (Mr Burn goes on a 10 minutes search). Ah think I’ve got it. Does it run off a pipe which connects with the mains?
CW: Yes…
IB: So, I turn on all the taps and then…….?
CW:…. just the cold-water taps and tell me what’s happening with the dial.
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IB: The dial is moving.
CW: Great. Now I want you turn off all the taps downstairs, then go upstairs and turn on all the taps and tell me what’s happening to the outside meter…..
IB: In sympathy for my mobility problems…..where is this outside meter?
CW: Well, we have it listed as within 4ft of the front door. You’ll notice it because there’s a square metal plate cover with WATER on the front and it’s somewhere on the pavement between the door and the road.
IB: (Mr Burn turns off the taps downstairs and locates the outside meter on the pavement – which takes 10 minutes) Ah got it, but how do I get the metal cover open?
CW: …. Have you got a screwdriver or something to hand to prise it open?
IB: (with more than a little sarcasm). Yeah, I always carry a screwdriver! Am I being paid for this?!!
CW: (no response…)
IB: Let me have a look (Mr Burn searches for a screwdriver, which takes 5 minutes). OK I’ve got a screwdriver.
CW:…. Great…..wedge it into the slot and lift the cover. What can you see?
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According to some recent estimates, AI prompts consume as much water as a 16-ounce bottle every 5-50 interactions. Tech company’s have significantly increased their water needs for cooling data centres due to the escalating demand for online services and generative AI products. AI server cooling consumes significant water, with data centres using cooling towers and air mechanisms to dissipate heat, causing up to 9 litres of water to evaporate per kWh of energy used.
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IB: (Mr Burn inserts the screwdriver and lifts the metal cover as instructed) I can see a round dial or ‘face’ with numbers……
CW:…. Can you see a tiny cruciform shape in the centre?
IB: I’m not sure, it’s not entirely clear… ah yes got it.
CW: OK, now close the cover and I’d like you to go upstairs and turn on all the taps…
MJ: Hang on, now you’re asking me to walk up 3 flights of stairs!
CW: ….I understand Mr Burn but this is the only way for us to do this. We are trying to help you…..
IB: (Mr Burn hobbles upstairs, turns on taps and returns to outside meter which takes 12 minutes) OK, what do I do now?
CW: Open the cover again…….. what’s happening with the cruciform dial?
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“In June and July, Athens experienced its hottest months on record as temperatures consistently exceeded 40C in the daytime and reached 30C at night. Rainfall was also significantly lower than the historical norm. The problem of water scarcity has extended beyond Greece, as Europe takes its place in modern human history as the world’s fastest-warming continent. Thousands of residents of the Sicilian city of Agrigento took to the streets with “we want water” signs in a protest earlier this month, after enduring months of shortages, and demanded more access to water. Water rationing in Sicily was put in place in March, affecting 93 municipalities and 850,000 people. A naval ship was pressed into service to supply water to drought-stricken coastal towns and €20mn was allocated to fix its leaky infrastructure. Authorities also plan to spend €90mn reviving three old desalination plants.” 30 August 2024
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IB: It’s moving…..
CW: Great. So now I’d like you to go upstairs again, turn off the taps, go back to the outside meter and tell me what happens to the dial.
IB: (Mr Burn reluctantly navigates the stairs again, turns off taps and returns to the outside meter – which takes 8 minutes). The dial isn’t moving. What is this…some kind of workout?
CW: (Ignoring Mr Burn’s frustration) Great. Now I’d like you to go downstairs, turn on all the taps again and tell me what happens to the dial on the outside meter.
IB: For fucks sake, I could have done this earlier….!
CW: Mr Jones, we won’t accept that kind of language….. we’re trying to help you. We need to find a way to do this together or you’ll incur a call-out fee? Tell me what is happening with the outside meter after you’ve turned the downstairs taps on?
IB: (Mr Burn turns on the downstairs taps and checks the outside meter – which takes 4 minutes). It’s moving.
CW: That’s interesting. As I thought. Can you now tell me what’s happening with the internal sub-meter?
IB: What….? Do I turn the taps on or off?
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Dear Mr Burns, We would like to let you know that £45.00 bill adjustment is due to late payment and will be removed. Also, account will be taken back from Debt Collection Agency and is on hold for a month. As in this case, you need to contact us if you have any update from freshwater company, otherwise the account will go to Debt Collection Agency again if we will not hear anything from you in a month, also you can call us to extend the hold if it is needed. Southern Water. April 2024
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1hr 40 minutes into phone call
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In the two financial years since 2021 water companies in England and Wales added £8.2 billon to their net debt while paying £2.5 billion in dividends to shareholders. “Thames Water, the London utility fighting for its financial survival, has called for another increase in customer bills as it warned that proposed cuts to its business plan by the industry regulator would jeopardise the company’s recovery. The UK’s biggest water supplier, which serves 16mn people in south-east England, said on Wednesday that it wanted to raise customer bills by £18.99 a month — or 52 per cent — by 2030 to fund investment in wastewater treatment and other improvements to its services.” August 2024. “Water companies could face a series of legal challenges after a landmark judgment from the Supreme Court ruled that private landowners and individuals can seek redress for sewage released into UK waterways. The legal challenge was one of a number faced by water companies as anger mounts over the mixture of storm water and raw sewage that is pouring into rivers and coastal waters, threatening human health and the environment. July, 2024
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TO BE CONTINUED
AGUA
En diciembre de 2023, Ian Burn presenta una queja ante el Consejo de Consumidores de Agua del Reino Unido. “Hola, vivo en una vivienda unifamiliar con una parte residencial y comercial abastecida por Affinity Water (residencial) y Castle Water (comercial). La parte comercial sale de un submedidor que Castle Water no ha reconocido pero que está presente en la documentación de Affinity Water. Ahora recibí una factura adicional de Southern Water y no tengo idea de para qué sirve. Parece haber mucha confusión entre las distintas empresas y me gustaría una explicación clara de por quién y qué estoy pagando.
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**Llamada telefónica de seguimiento realizada a Castle Water en algún momento de junio de 2024
anillo… anillo… anillo…
Voz automatizada (AV): Gracias por contactar a Castle Water……. Para ayudarnos a mejorar los servicios que brindamos, las llamadas pueden grabarse……. Para clientes de Inglaterra presione 1, clientes de Escocia presione 2……. Por favor haga una selección válida.
Ian Burn (IB): (Presiona 1)
AV: Ingrese su número de cuenta de Castle Water de 7 dígitos…
IB: (Ingresa el número de cuenta)
24 minutos de espera con música de fondo grabada.
Castle Water (CW): Puede confirmar los detalles de su cuenta?
IB: (Confirma los detalles verbalmente)
CW: Cómo podemos ayudarle hoy, señor Burn?
IB: Parece que estoy pagando dos veces por mi suministro de agua porque su empresa no ha registrado la existencia de un submedidor en la propiedad. Creo que hay un contador de agua fuera de la casa, que sirve tanto arriba como abajo y calcula el suministro. Hay un medidor separado dentro de la propiedad que vuelve a calcular el suministro. El problema es que este submedidor está conectado al medidor exterior, por lo que esencialmente pago el doble del mismo suministro.
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“La situación en España se ha vuelto lo suficientemente grave como para justificar una respuesta del Estado esta semana. Se anunciaron nuevas y enormes inversiones en instalaciones de desalinización, aparentemente aceleradas después de las revueltas de los agricultores, en parte por la falta de disponibilidad de agua. Marcharon bajo el lema “NUESTRO FIN TE MUERTE DE HAMBRE” con pancartas de tractores que bloqueaban las autopistas y el puerto de Tarragona. Pero un problema con tal solución es que los millones de litros de salmuera producida por la desalinización masiva tendrían que ser eliminados en el mar, acabando con la biodiversidad y las fuentes de alimentos allí. Y por supuesto, el turismo. Los hoteles ricos de Lloret de Mar acaban de comprar ayer su propio camión desalinizador por valor de un millón de dólares, ya que es ilegal llenar piscinas, pero la Generalitat catalana ha dicho que puede intervenir para impedir este tipo de “soluciones orientadas al individuo/turista”. Los primeros municipios han anunciado multas de 3.000 euros por regar los jardines”. Febrero 2024
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CW: Bueno, señor Burn, esto es confuso. Revisemos la documentación, dame unos minutos (5 minutos). Entonces, veamos qué podemos hacer para ayudar. Le sería posible abrir todos los grifos de abajo y decirme qué está pasando con el dial del submedidor interno…?
IB:… Espera un momento, tengo dificultades de movilidad y no sé dónde están los contadores. Sería posible que enviaras a alguien para comprobar esto?
CW:…. Me temo que no, señor Burn, y lamento oír hablar de sus problemas de salud. Han sido registrados en la empresa? Es posible contratar a un técnico, pero esto conlleva un cargo aparte y, si no se encuentra ningún fallo, deberá abonar una tarifa adicional de £ 70 por llamada.
IB: No puedo permitirme £70 libras pero no tengo otra opción… Tendré que buscar. ¿Dónde encuentro el medidor?
CW: Sabes dónde está la caldera de agua….?
IB:…. Sí.
CW:…. Pues sigue las tuberías desde la caldera y deberías encontrar un contador, normalmente dentro de un armario.
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“Un comerciante rico desconfía de su guía porque es demasiado amigable con el culi (trabajador asiático contratado) que lleva el equipaje; entonces lo envía de regreso. El culi se pierde en el postre; se quedan sin agua; y cuando el culi se le acerca con una botella de agua el comerciante cree que va a atacar y le dispara y lo mata. Un tribunal juzga el caso y decide que se trató de un acto de legítima defensa. La regla es que el desvalido debe querer atacar a su empleador, y no se puede esperar que el comerciante sepa que se trata de una excepción” La excepción y la regla (Die Ausnahme und die Regel). Ambientada en Mongolia, en algún momento entre 1900 y 1930. Bertoldo Brecht. Juego escolar. 1930.
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IB: (El señor Burn realiza una búsqueda de 10 minutos). Ah, creo que lo tengo. Saldrá de alguna tubería que conecte con la red eléctrica?
CW: Sí…
IB: Entonces abro todos los grifos y luego…….?
CW:…. solo los grifos de agua fría y dime qué está pasando con el dial.
IB: El dial se está moviendo.
CW: Genial. Ahora quiero que cierres todos los grifos de abajo, luego subas y abras todos los grifos y me digas qué está pasando con el medidor exterior…
IB: En solidaridad con mis problemas de movilidad… ¿dónde está este medidor exterior?
CW: Bueno, lo tenemos catalogado como a 4 pies de la puerta principal. Lo notarás porque tendrá una cubierta de placa de metal cuadrada con AGUA en el frente y estará en algún lugar del pavimento entre la puerta y la carretera.
IB: (El señor Burns cierra los grifos de abajo y localiza el medidor exterior en la acera. 10 minutos) Ah, lo tengo, pero ¿cómo abro la tapa metálica?
CW.:…. No tienes un destornillador o algo para abrirlo?
IB: Me pagan por esto?
CW: (sin respuesta…)
IB: Déjame echar un vistazo [[Busca un destornillador. 5 minutos]]. OK, tengo un destornillador.
CW:…. Genial… introdúzcalo en la ranura y levante la tapa. Qué puedes ver?
IB: (Levanta la cubierta según las instrucciones) Puedo ver una esfera redonda o una “cara” con números…
CW:…. Puedes ver una forma cruciforme en el centro?
IB: No estoy seguro, no está del todo claro… ah, sí, lo tengo.
CW: Bien, ahora cierra la tapa y me gustaría que subieras y abrieras todos los grifos…
MJ: Espera, ahora estás pidiendo 3 tramos de escaleras.
CW: …Entiendo al Sr. Burns, pero esta es la única manera que tenemos de hacerlo. Estamos tratando de ayudarte
IB: [[El señor Burn sube las escaleras cojeando, abre los grifos y regresa al contador exterior, lo que tarda 12 minutos]] Bien, qué hago ahora?
CW: Abre la tapa otra vez… Qué está pasando con el dial?
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“En junio y julio, Atenas experimentó los meses más calurosos registrados, ya que las temperaturas superaron constantemente los 40 ° C durante el día y alcanzaron los 30 ° C durante la noche. Las precipitaciones también fueron significativamente inferiores a la norma histórica. El problema de la escasez de agua se ha extendido más allá de Grecia, a medida que Europa ocupa su lugar en la historia humana moderna como el continente que se calienta más rápido del mundo. Miles de residentes de la ciudad siciliana de Agrigento salieron a las calles con carteles de “queremos agua” en una protesta a principios de este mes, después de soportar meses de escasez, y exigieron más acceso al agua. El racionamiento del agua en Sicilia se impuso en marzo y afectó a 93 municipios y 850.000 personas. Se puso en servicio un buque de guerra para suministrar agua a las ciudades costeras afectadas por la sequía y se asignaron 20 millones de euros para reparar su infraestructura con fugas. Las autoridades también planean gastar 90 millones de euros para reactivar tres antiguas plantas de desalinización”. 30 de agosto de 2024
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IB: Se está moviendo…..
CW: Genial. Así que ahora me gustaría que subieras de nuevo, cerraras los grifos, volvieras al contador exterior y me dijeras qué pasa con el dial.
IB: [[El señor Burns sube las escaleras de mala gana, cierra los grifos y regresa al medidor exterior. 8 minutos]]. El dial no se mueve. Qué es esto… algún tipo de ejercicio?
CW: Genial. Ahora me gustaría que bajases, volvieras a abrir todos los grifos y me dijeras qué pasa con el dial del contador exterior.
IB: Joder, podría haber hecho esto antes….
CW: Señor Jones, no aceptaremos ese tipo de lenguaje… estamos tratando de ayudarlo. Necesitamos encontrar una manera de hacer esto juntos o incurrirá en una tarifa de llamada? Dime qué pasa con el medidor exterior después de abrir los grifos de abajo?
IB: (El señor Burns vuelve a abrir los grifos de la planta baja y comprueba el contador exterior. 4 minutos). Se está moviendo.
CW: Eso es interesante. Como pensé. Puedes decirme ahora qué está pasando con el submedidor interno?
IB: Qué…. Abro o cierro los grifos?
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Estimado señor Burns: Nos gustaría informarle que el ajuste de factura de £45,00 se debe a un pago atrasado y se eliminará. Además, la cuenta será retirada de la Agencia de Cobro de Deudas y quedará en espera durante un mes. Como en este caso, debe comunicarse con nosotros si tiene alguna actualización de la compañía de agua dulce; de lo contrario, la cuenta irá nuevamente a la Agencia de cobro de deudas si no escuchamos nada suyo en un mes. También puede llamarnos para extender la retención. si es necesario. Agua del Sur. abril 2024
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1 hora y 40 minutos desde la llamada telefónica
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En los dos ejercicios financieros transcurridos desde 2021, las empresas de agua de Inglaterra y Gales agregaron £8,2 mil millones de libras a su deuda neta y pagaron £2,5 mil millones de libras en dividendos a los accionistas. “Thames Water, la empresa de servicios públicos de Londres que lucha por su supervivencia financiera, ha pedido otro aumento en las facturas de los clientes, ya que advirtió que los recortes propuestos a su plan de negocios por parte del regulador de la industria pondrían en peligro la recuperación de la compañía. El mayor proveedor de agua del Reino Unido, que abastece a 16 millones de personas en el sureste de Inglaterra, dijo el miércoles que quería aumentar las facturas de los clientes en £18,99 al mes (o un 52 por ciento) para 2030 para financiar inversiones en tratamiento de aguas residuales y otras mejoras en sus sistemas. servicios.” Agosto de 2024. “Las empresas de agua podrían enfrentar una serie de desafíos legales después de que una sentencia histórica de la Corte Suprema dictaminara que los propietarios privados y los individuos pueden solicitar reparación por las aguas residuales vertidas en las vías fluviales del Reino Unido. El desafío legal fue uno de los muchos que enfrentan las compañías de agua a medida que aumenta la ira por la mezcla de aguas pluviales y aguas residuales sin tratar que se vierte en ríos y aguas costeras, amenazando la salud humana y el medio ambiente. julio, 2024
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Continuará