Daniel Zeichner's views on the state of our rivers, and what to do about it

On Tuesday 17th March Friends of the Cam had a meeting with Daniel Zeichner as part of the Sewage Campaign Network Day in Parliament. The report of our meeting, as well as a report of an evening meeting focused on the Channel 4 drama-documentary Dirty Business hosted by Clive Lewis MP for Norwich South, is attached. Key takeaways from our meeting with Daniel Zeichner are that he is not in support of public ownership of water on the basis that this 'wasn't in the Labour Party manifesto'; doesn't believe that this, or the state of our rivers, is 'an issue on the doorstep'; believes that Anglian Water is doing better than many other water companies, and praised its recent CEO Alex Plant [NB now with Scottish Water, having left Anglian Water with record debt, high levels of illegal sewage, and substantial fines.

Daniel Zeichner had only watched 'a couple of clips' of Dirty Business, as he'd been too busy to watch the whole film. He did not join 12 other MPs at the screening of excerpts and panel discussion with those depicted in the film. If you are concerned about the state of the Cam and other rivers, and believe that the Government should bring water public ownership, send your MP an email/letter.

Dirty Business is a series of 3 one hour programmes focuses on the death of Heather Preen from E.Coli poisoning on a Devon beach in 1999. It continues with the sleuth work of Peter Hammond and Ash Smith from Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP) which uncovered the parlous state of Thames Water’s  waste water treatment and the collusion of the Environment Agency with water companies. It is an essential watch, though harrowing. Also at the meeting to discuss the film, and the need to bring water into public ownership was Julie Maughan, Heather’s mother, Peter and Ash, the film’s director, and the two whistle blowers who revealed the extent of Thames Water collusion and pollution.

The difference between the attitude to sewage pollution between Clive Lewis and Daniel Zeichner could not be more stark. While Clive Lewis is calling for water companies to be brought back under public ownership, Daniel Zeichner told us it could not happen ‘because it was not in our [2024] manifesto’. Clive Lewis asked ‘who’s in charge of this country?’, argued that ‘democracy isn’t working’ and bemoaned the fact that the priority for water is data and AI centres. ‘This Labour Government’, he said, ‘needs to wake up’.