Washington Post published an article on the plight of Thames Water entitled’ Drowning in Debt ‘ . The Company has £14 thousand million pounds of debt. The Company sells water to its 15 million customers. To do that the Company creates a supply pipe network , stores and provides clear clean stuff so that households , businesses can use it. The H2O can’t be polluted. The Company has shareholders and the main ones are Joe Public, Canadian Pension Fund, Sovereign Funds from Abu Dhabi , Kuwait , China , Qatar and Universities.
Shareholders buy shares from each other. They can provide debt but when they do there is a rights issue and they can get diluted ( imagine a cordial drink ) if they don’t fully subscribe. The Directors who may not be shareholders run the Company along with the employees get salaries , about 7,000 of them. The Company need to make profits otherwise no point existing and when they do they should ideally reinvest but unless they get dividends they won’t invest . It’s cart before the horse or duck before the boat. The Company in the mains ( where the sewers are ) raise funds for the business and ensure the cash flows as much as the rivers. No flow no go. In all this sea or reservoir of debt interest has to be paid and if interest rates rise like a flood they can cause untold damage ( now ). There are sandbags of course such as fixed rate financing but that river ends.
There does come a point where the providers of the debt turn off the tap. The river of cash runs dry the well becomes unwell. Inevitably in the world we live in vital resources such as water need support from the State and running waters at a loss may well be in the national interest. Then the State owns the Water and State supplies it’s people , for the people. Abraham Lincoln style. In private ownership the lemon is squeezed by the Rivers of Babylon in this case Thames. Old Father Thames has seen it all before and just wants to keep going but would prefer that human waste from lavatories and chemicals are not flushed away in its flows.
Thames Water oughta be owned by the State along with all the Water Companies, Energy Companies and Communications. It’s not Communism it’s Common sense. The State along with the 65 million people in it needs to be part of the solution. The State can raise monies via a number of supply chains. Water is one of the most valuable, vital assets that we can have. We can’t afford leaks of capital and resources., Brexit Britain needs a rethink a renewal otherwise we will be WREXIT Britain and we will get flushed away in drains near you.
Sorry for going on like a dripping tap but it’s time to turn off that tap and tap into a new way. The rivers meander just like this blog but along the way there are banks and we need to get away from those Banks that suck the life out of the river with giant straws that will break any camel’s back. Now please don’t get the hump. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink, debt debt everywhere and it’s just about to sink.
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