Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink…

While tackling the cost-of-living crisis tops the government’s priority list, there is another issue that is getting political traction and is giving some MPs the jitters.

The quality of our water - or the lack thereof - is emerging as a topic which increasingly concerns voters.

The uncontrolled sewage dumps into the sea and rivers is one of those issues which may not, on its own, determine an MP’s fate at the ballot box. But it could be an unwelcome contributory factor that voters take into account when they put a cross against their preferred candidate.

In 2023, the quality of our water ought not to be a political determinant but years of neglect and a failure by water companies to invest has caught the attention of voters.

There was a time when getting the attention of politicians on water quality was nigh-on impossible.

The campaign group Surfers Against Sewage sought for years to get the problem up the political agenda. Former Prime Minister David Cameron discovered the same kind of resistance. His attempt to go green - or go greener - made some of his activists and supporters see red.

Remember ‘hug a husky’, the Tory slogan used to get voters to see the party as concerned about the environment and pollution? It was met with a mix of bafflement and indifference and the party has struggled to convince voters it has a genuine commitment to environmental issues.

But politicians are behind the privatised water companies as the villain in this piece, seen to be dragging their heels on working to improve its creaking infrastructure.

News today that environment secretary Thérèse Coffey was considering watering down punishments combined with Rishi Sunak's plan to ditch safer water regulations won't have helped that.

The driver for the growing public interest in what exactly is being churned into our waterways may derive from the Covid pandemic: with the ban on travel abroad and the alternative ‘staycation’ phenomenon, many more of us discovered beaches and rivers we had never visited.

The government’s dilemma is in the court of public opinion, it is seen as closer to powerful water companies, despite some of the eye-wateringly high fines regulators have slapped on them.

THERE is already a weary resignation among Conservatives that they are in for a pummeling at local council elections in May.

You hardly need to ask why and if you are looking for signs of its fortunes, it is that chatter among activists and supporters has already turned to who would make the best opposition leader - not the next Prime Minister.