Dispatches

Floods: Your Money Down the Drain (2014x2)

Air date: Feb 03, 2014

The floods that recently hit Britain have caused misery for thousands, but do you know what's actually in the flood water that has engulfed our towns and streets? Dispatches meets homeowners unlucky enough to have found raw sewage in their gardens, basements and even kitchens. And this is not a rare event. Twenty-five years after water privatisation, reporter Antony Barnett investigates the state of our sewers and asks why prices have risen so fast while investment in our old pipes hasn't materialised. And it's not just homes; Dispatches can exclusively reveal the huge number of major sewage leaks into our nation's rivers and streams.