{"id":341260,"date":"2026-05-06T21:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/how-water-companies-get-away-with-polluting-englands-rivers\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T21:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:00:06","slug":"how-water-companies-get-away-with-polluting-englands-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/how-water-companies-get-away-with-polluting-englands-rivers\/","title":{"rendered":"How water companies get away with polluting England\u2019s rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.ytimg.com\/vi\/IwsXgS29psw\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"How water companies get away with polluting England\u2019s rivers\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IwsXgS29psw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Imagine being able to buy your way out of a prosecution for breaking the law by donating to charity instead. That&#8217;s precisely the regime that&#8217;s existed for years in the water industry as it illegally releases sewage into England\u2019s rivers. <\/p>\n<p>[Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe]<\/p>\n<p>This programme has discovered there has not been a single completed prosecution of a water company for any of the two million sewage discharges that took place in the last five years. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the dirty secret at the heart of England\u2019s waterways. The water companies publicly insist they are cleaning up their act, but privately they have been allowed to avoid prosecution for years through a deal that lets a company admit fault and pay money to a good cause instead of facing criminal charges. <\/p>\n<p>The government says its system puts money directly into cleaning up the rivers and avoids the delay of legal action, but one whistleblower tells us it means the repeat offending goes on, the company bosses escape being shamed and the water gets filthier.  <\/p>\n<p>Correspondent: Alex Thomson<br \/>\nProducers: Emily Roe, Nanette van der Laan<br \/>\nCameras: Matt Symons, Justin Oliver, James Betteridge<br \/>\nEditors: Ricardo Marcelino; Sophie Larkin-Tannetta<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;-<br \/>\n0:00 &#8211; The dirty secret behind England\u2019s water sewage crisis<br \/>\n10:45 &#8211; Defra response<br \/>\n11:27 &#8211; Water company payments are \u2018get out of jail card&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p>Get more news at our site &#8211; https:\/\/www.channel4.com\/news\/ <\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe<\/p>\n<p>Follow us:<br \/>\nTikTok &#8211; https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@c4news<br \/>\nInstagram &#8211; https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel4news\/<br \/>\nTwitter &#8211; https:\/\/twitter.com\/Channel4News<br \/>\nFacebook &#8211; https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Channel4News\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine being able to buy your way out of a prosecution for breaking the law by donating to charity instead. That&#8217;s precisely the regime that&#8217;s existed for years in the water industry as it illegally releases sewage into England\u2019s rivers. [Subscribe to our Substack newsletter: https:\/\/channel4news.substack.com\/subscribe] This programme has discovered there has not been a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128813],"tags":[134727,134529,128913],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-341260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-channel-4-news","tag-imagine","tag-able","tag-being"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How water companies get away with polluting England\u2019s rivers | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch How water companies get away with polluting England\u2019s rivers for free, here on News ISC. 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