Are Britain's clean seas a thing of the past?

A postcard of London Bridge across the River Thames, circa 1890. The Great Stink is a reference to the state of the river at Westminster in Victorian times. Getty Images

A few miles along the coast from Dover’s white chalk cliffs the English seaside town of Folkestone is holding an art festival, but with a difference. Every three years the “Folkestone Triennial” commissions art works in which the town is the “gallery”. As you walk around you will come across 20 or so artworks of different kinds responding to Folkestone’s landscape and history.

I’ve been visiting the "Minister of Sewers”. The Triennial guide says it’s “a creative project by the Turner Prize-nominated artists Cooking Sections” created as “a platform for the public to voice concerns about coastal water pollution and share their experiences with sewage spills and related issues”.

The project, in the harbour’s old Customs House, begins with a friendly welcome and a display about water pollution and sewage, but behind it is a serious purpose. Folkestone, like much of the English coast, is delightful to live in and visit, but bathing in the sea is nowadays not always a pleasure. It can be a risk, especially after heavy rain.

Too many of the beaches in prime swimming areas of England – including lakes and rivers as well as the sea – have seen bathing water quality dip from “excellent” to “good” or worse. Heavy rainfall can lead to overflows in the often antiquated sewage systems. When that happens the water quality drops to “poor”. There is no official “Minister of Sewers” in England, but the Folkestone arts project encourages visitors to make an appointment for a chat with one of the volunteers.

The “Minister” dressed in an official-looking “Minister of Sewers” costume sat with me for a chat. She took notes about my own experiences as a sea swimmer on this lovely coast to gather evidence and create a "Log of Grievances" to support collective action and push for better water quality.

Too many of the beaches in prime swimming areas of England – including lakes and rivers as well as the sea – have seen bathing water quality dip from 'excellent' to 'good' or worse

Art in Action strikes a chord with the British public because sewage, water quality and the cost of drinking water are big news right now across the UK. We think of ourselves as a wet little island, but we have serious water problems and possible future shortages.

We have a growing population in the south east, an area which has much lower annual rainfall than rural areas like the Scottish Highlands, and despite significantly increased demand for water we have failed to build any new major reservoirs since 1992.

The Starmer government is promising action. They commissioned a review of the water industry in England and Wales by a respected former civil servant, Sir Jon Cunliffe. It was published last week and calls for once in a generation fundamental reforms to address what is being called Britain’s “Great Stink moment”.

The Great Stink is a reference to the shocking state of the River Thames at Westminster in Victorian times. In 1858, the river was so polluted with sewage and the smell so bad that Members of Parliament refused to meet. A massive public works programme followed and a world-leading sewage system for London was built. A similar kind of energy and investment is now being promised although the details are as yet unclear.

What is clear is that the privatisation of the water industry in England and Wales by Margaret Thatcher in 1989 has been a profound failure. Privatisation extracted private profits for shareholders and paid huge bonuses to some employees while failing to invest in reservoirs, better sewerage and fixing broken pipes and waste.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher acknowledges applauds on Ocotber 13, 1989 at the end of the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool. The privatisation of the water industry by her in the same year has been a failure AFP

The 464-page Cunliffe review has provided 88 recommendations for change, but re-nationalisation is not being contemplated largely because it would demand a vast amount of public money, which is not available. The Water Services Regulation Authority, or Ofwat, will be scrapped and what follows is billed as “the biggest overhaul of water since privatisation”. Well, we shall see.

But it’s worth pointing out that Britain is not alone in having a water problem. Rising demand, growing populations, changes in our climate, and arguments about water quality are nothing new. The South African city of Cape Town came close to running out of water entirely a few years ago with “Day Zero” – no tap water – a real possibility.

The Afghan capital Kabul right now has severe water shortages. India and Pakistan’s recent short-lived conflict over the terrorist attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir led to threats that India would abrogate the Indus Waters treaty that has shared waters between these two nuclear armed powers since 1960.

In France, pollution of the River Seine caused the French government considerable embarrassment during the 2024 Olympics. They have cleaned things up since then at great cost.

And in the first days of the Trump administration in January this year the new President and California Governor Gavin Newsom argued not just about California wildfires but about lack of water to fight them.

It’s predicted that the world in the 21st century will see water conflicts even water wars over this most precious resource. We can hope not. As for me, I just want my children and other families to be able to swim in our beautiful clean seas without worrying about the possibility that we really need a Ministry of Sewers.