Thread by @holly

My water supplier, @stwater, has been sending messages telling people to use less water in the #UKHeatwave.

As a result, my neighbours have been worried about using water on days so hot, they're a national emergency.

Let me tell you some things about Severn Trent. 🧵

Here are Severn Trent's water leakage figures for the past few years. This is treated, clean drinking water that pours away every day because of leaks they have not fixed.

410 MILLION litres lost PER DAY.

The average person uses about 150 litres of water per day.

Which means Severn Trent loses enough water for 2.7 million people through leakage EVERY DAY.

They don't seem very motivated to fix this.

shropshirestar.com/news/local-hub…

In the year to 2022, Severn Trent made £506m profit (PBIT).

That's £1.4 million per day. Not turnover -- pure profit. Per DAY. While they let 410 million litres of drinking water go to waste.

In 2019, Severn Trent were caught sending Uber drivers instead of technicians to look at reported leaks in a bid to save some pennies.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

They've also been caught massively falsifying their leakage figures in the past, leading to a record £36m fine.

Their response to "one of the largest customer overcharging scandals ever"? To cut bills by £2.40 per household.

independent.co.uk/news/business/…

It appals me that a life-sustaining resource like water is even eligible to make profit on, but UK water bills have risen 42% in real terms since the industry was privatised by Thatcher in 1989.

And then they tell us to use less because they'd rather not fix some pipes?

I'm not talking about people washing their cars. I'm talking about people afraid to use the water they need because Severn Trent says they have to turn the tap off while they brush their teeth.

Is this comparable to the 164 Olympic swimming pools you lose every day, @stwater?

It's not just humans, either. Scaremongering messages telling people not to use hoses mean gardens don't get watered, so the grass and flowers die in -- again -- LITERALLY UNPRECEDENTED temperatures.

What are the creatures who rely on those supposed to do? Write to Severn Trent?

I'm appalled by the way companies are allowed to profiteer almost limitlessly from a natural resource that people and animals need to survive.

But to then place the blame for shortages in dangerous heat on our shoulders?

Hell no.

Sources:
severntrent.com/content/dam/st…
questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questi…
gmb.org.uk/news/water-com…
nao.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-…

I've had this as a DM and as replies on the tweet so I'll just reply here, @stwater.

I'm aware of your efforts and the various promises you've made. I did a lot of research into the thread and I've also lived in your service areas for much of my life...

Those texts blamed your customers for shortages during a national-emergency heatwave when the amount of water saved by making them worry about brushing their teeth is quite literally a drop in the ocean when you lose 164 Olympic pools a day, not to mention sewage dumping etc.

Furthermore, your customers get no choice in who supplies their water, nor can they choose to get it from a national organisation that isn't profiteering (again, 42% above inflation since '89) on something WE NEED TO LIVE.

Privatised water is disgraceful and so are you.

Please remember to address your comments to the company/management & not the person running the Twitter account, it's not their fault.

My "so are you" above is meant for the company, not that person -- should have worded that better

https://twitter.com/holly/status/1549752374327230464

I'm just angry, having seen the lovely elderly people in my community fretting about whether it's OK to fill up the bird bath because Severn Trent's strategy is to make them feel responsible for an organisational failure far, far above their heads

Also, it's interesting that when I've tried to speak to Severn Trent before via social media, all I got was an automated bot that "didn't understand" words, but when I've written a critical thread that's doing numbers, suddenly there's a real person on the other end?