Britain’s dirty seas and rivers. Beach-goers told to keep out of the water. Sewage being released into our rivers. And just who is responsible? Tonight: Dirty Water: What Went Wrong? ITV 2023
Hundreds of thousands of times a year those waters are being polluted by sewage. And research suggests we don’t even know how dirty our waterways are. ibid.
In 1858 an extraordinary heatwave struck London. It was the hottest ever recorded and it caused one of the most shocking and disgusting events in the City’s history: the Great Stink. At that time thousand of gallons of human excrement, factory pollution and even dead animals were being dumped into the Thames every day. The Great Stink of 1858 I: Contagion
The crisis was so devastating it forced the government to undertake one of the greatest engineering projects in history – the London sewer system. ibid.
The waste and raw sewage of three million Londoners was being dumped in the Thames. ibid.
Chief engineer Joseph Bazalgette: He had an extraordinary ambitious plan to transform London’s sewer network. ibid.
4,000 Londoners a year were dying of diseases caused by sewage. ibid.
The biggest public works in British history. ibid.
As a drought hits Britain and a fifth of drinking water goes to waste through leaks, we investigate why water companies are still dumping untreated sewage into our rivers and seas. And reveal how companies are breaking the law. Dispatches: Britain’s Water Scandal, Channel 4 2022
Why the Environment Agency is not up to the job. ibid.
The state of our rivers and seas is so bad that some water companies are now under criminal investigation over their sewage dumping practices. ibid.
Guadalajala, Mexico: What lies beneath its streets is a labyrinth of pipes, cables and tunnels … The unthinkable happens: 206 citizens lose their lives. Seconds from Disaster s1e8: Inferno in Guadalajala
April 21st 1992: A foul smell has been hanging in the air for two days … People report seeing gas plumes coming out of manhole covers. Something is wrong underground … Residents now discover gasoline in their water supply. ibid.
The blast tears underground along the sewer line … Like a bomb zone … and still the blasts continue … The scale of destruction is immense. ibid.
15,000 people are homeless, 1,440 injured, and 206 dead. ibid.
Gasoline in the sewers … ‘an erosion takes place; the wall of the gasoline pipe decreases and the leak of gasoline takes place.’ ibid. expert
Deep beneath the city a monster awakens: ‘This red blob: then it starts writhing, it starts pulsating’ … ‘There’s thousands of miles of sewers beneath our cities’ … It’s a mass of worms. Strange Evidence s1e1, History 2024
2004: Terrifying explosions rock New York City … The manhole cover hits the car with the force of a missile … The pressure from these escaping gasses builds up in the manhole. Strange Evidence s1e3