Barry Gardiner MP, Brent North Published: 8:45 AM May 1, 2021
Workers competing Joseph Bazalgette's Northern Outfall sewer at Becton in the 1860s - Credit: Totally Thames There are certain things we British just don’t like to talk about - poo is one of them! Few of us bother to think what happens when we flush and walk away. As long as the air freshener is at hand and the toilet is left clean we think it is someone else’s problem . So the recent Panorama documentary that revealed water companies released raw sewage into our rivers more than 400,000 times last year, was quite a disgusting shock. And it’s not just poo -- residents in one part of London now call the stretch of the Thames riverbank in their area the ‘Great Wet Wipe Reef’.