Water UK.

– Water UK – the industry body for embattled English Water Companies, has launched a PR counter-offensive today after reports that it had overseen over 300k sewage spills in ’22 while making eye-watering profits. This slick exercise in corporate crisis response has successfully established the Water Companies’ narrative on prominent media platforms but also highlights crucial lessons in crisis management, greater awareness of which might have helped stem the flow of reputational (if not literal) sewage.

The Power of Well-Executed Grassroots Campaigns – Feargal Sharkey’s peak of pop-cultural relevance may have been 45 years ago. He may have been the de-facto public figurehead of national clean water campaigns for half a decade without forcing meaningful change. Still, the water companies failed (despite what Sharkey characterised as attempts by then to “woo” him) to engage with, appease, or discredit his campaign. Earlier this year, the combination of Sharkey’s celebrity (revived by the uniquely British-Irish fascination around his journey from punk to anti-sewage campaigner) and the damning revelations about the extent of the damage and the paucity of the response prompted every major national media outlet to cover his campaign, increasing its power and pressure on the water companies, and necessitating today’s scramble for credibility.

The Importance of Awareness of the Zeitgeist – Irrespective of their popularity (or lack of) with the public, the likes of Greta Thunberg, XR, Stop Oil – even the more untethered comments of the likes of David Attenborough- have increased the awareness and importance of environmental issues. While global coverage focuses on huge macro topics such as global carbon emissions, this has had a trickle-down effect on local issues (including clean water and sewage) that have a more direct and immediate impact on people’s lives. Add to this robust scrutiny of the cost-of-living crisis, which has increased pressure on landlords, supermarkets, energy providers and other utilities to address both their environmental impact and their profit margins, and the Water industry should have seen the current reckoning coming.

Crisis Response must be grounded in substance and action – As slick and coordinated as the response from Water UK and its members has been until they take action to reduce sewage spills and that action has an impact, it’s still rhetoric delivered in a neatly media-trained package. The promise of investment can be attacked (apparently, the consumer will be picking up the tab eventually), and the promise of infrastructural changes can be dismissed as vague (not helped by comparisons to the Victorian era).

Overall, Water UK’s corrective action today and willingness to address its issues head-on will have a marginal benefit. But greater awareness of their critics, the wider news agenda, and the urgency of impactful action could have avoided the necessity of such a significant media operation.