This report on Adventure must be very worrying for people living near the Thames.

A representative of Thames Water, the company responsible for water supply and sewage processing in the Thames area in the UK, has stated that "We're not responsible for letting the public know whether they can swim in the rivers or not. That's up to them". We are not talking about people swimming in the river as it flows through central London (that stretch of the river hasn't been safe for swimming for decades) but about further upstream, where many people live in river-front houses and areas nearby.

Due to discharge from sewage processing plants on the Thames, there are very high levels of harmful bacteria and viruses in the water, in some cases up to 4,000 times higher than safe levels. The company claims that the discharges are within the levels allowed by their storm permit for the treatment works.

Leaving aside the disgrace represented by the storm permits themselves, whereby the government has made dangerous levels of pollution legal for Water Companies, in what world do they not have any responsibility to notify the public about health hazards? I contrast this situation in the UK with what we have here in Germany, where local governments (who are often also responsible for water supply and sewage processing) regularly issue warnings when swimming in lakes and rivers is considered unsafe.

The only good thing I can say about this is that, at least, it is not as bad as the scandal of lead pollution in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan.