Shit happens …

Anglophiles among us will have been following the English tradition of the annual boat race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames.

The river is so polluted with sewage that there were demands today’s race be moved to a safer waterway. But it goes ahead despite health risks to the rowers.

England’s rivers and coastal waters are deluged with filth because municipal water supply has been privatised over the years and profit takes precedence over practice.

It rains a lot over there so clean water shouldn’t be a problem.  A friend back from a visit says it only rained three times – once for three days, once for five days and once for two days.

In the southeast privatised ThamesWater is in huge debt, storage depots and sewers have collapsed, spewing out human detritus everywhere, yet bosses and shareholders still get their payouts. Now they want to put up monthly water bills by 65 percent to pay for corrective measures. That simply can’t happen.

Sounds all too familiar. Landlocked Zimbabwe has its own water and sewage crisis. We are not alone. More on that on another day. Today is boat race day.

Runoff into the shit filthy sea might deter illegal immigrants heading to the White Cliffs of Dover …