The imperial capital: Rome. The largest city on Earth. Population 1,000,000. Mankind: The Story of All of Us III, History Channel 2012
The State provides hand-outs to the poor. ibid.
The aqueduct is powered by gravity: it needs to drop one foot in every three hundred. ibid.
Rome’s aqueducts will deliver almost a billion litres of water a day. ibid.
Rome is the most advanced city in the world. Apartment blocks up to six stories high. ibid.
A police force, a fire brigade and a postal service. ibid.
England’s nine water firms have been allowed to amass debts of around £50 billion, while paying out at least £57 billion to shareholders, since water was privatised in 1989. Anoosh Chakelian, tweet August 2022
Hawaii: The US Navy stores 200 million gallons of in tanks buried 100 feet above O’ahu’s biggest aquifer. Known as Red Hill, the facility has leaked fuel regularly for decades. In November, leaked fuel was found in tap water at 350 times the safe limit. The Navy has tried to cover up the disaster which mainly poisoned military families. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Hawaiians Fight US Navy for Polluting Island’s Water, Abby Martin online 2021
On December 12th 2021 native Hawaiians went to the gates of the US Navy Command. ibid.
An incredible feat of engineering … Constantinople’s water system was one of the most sophisticated in the world, a network of aqueducts, channels and reservoirs. Bettany Hughes’ Treasures of the World s1e6: Istanbul, Channel 4 2021
The 50 billion’ worth of debt water companies are in has gone to maximise shareholder’ profits. Not a penny spent to improve infrastructure. While the rest of us are forced to swim in shit. Anita tweet 11th May 2023
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.
Sewage is being routinely released in our rivers and seas. So why isn’t the pollution being stopped? We reveal how regulation is failing. How water companies can cheat environmental tests. And how the companies can make pollution incidents disappear. Panorama: The Water Pollution Cover-Up, BBC 2023
Blackpool: This year the beach was awash with sewage. ibid.