A Citizens’ Assembly on Water
How long will this document read?
When was this document amended last?
18th June 2025
Additional information
This is a live document, which will change as we make a campaigning alliance, and incorporate further suggestions as a consequence. All contributions are welcome, so please do leave a comment in our discussion board.
Why?
Water is a collective resource to which everyone has a right. It should be stewarded as a commons. How might it be managed for the benefit of all of us? Right now, it isn’t. Our waterways are polluted. Our drinking water is lost from failing infrastructure, unimproved in decades. The water companies have syphoned off billions to line executives’ and shareholders’ pockets. But there is no coherent plan for water conservation or sustainable provision, given the context of a changing climate. The regulators, e.g. Ofwat and the Environment Agency, have been left ineffective after cost-cutting by governments that just don’t care about their brief. In addition to sewage dumping, there is no protection at all against agricultural, industrial, landfill, waste management or road traffic pollution.
The water scandal affects and offends every citizen of this country. It cuts across political, social, economic and cultural divisions. Campaigns and prominent campaigners against the current state of affairs draw sympathetic national media attention.
By adopting this proposal, we can develop a way to resolve the water issue and to begin to restore our environment. In the face of government inertia, regular citizens’ assemblies are the ideal mechanism to deliver a reset for our relationship with water. It cuts across all social divisions to bring a representative group of citizens together to make informed decisions that are proven to mirror wider public opinion. The people can take ownership of the solution. It sets a precedent for returning agency in swathes of public life, currently controlled by unaccountable quangos or local monopolies – think of the railways, the Post Office, the Port of London Authority, the Marine Management Organisation (Who are they? We should know). The use of citizens’ assemblies and decision-making by the public means taking stewardship of resources we all own. We can deliver a broad, just, environmental and ecological restoration.
Water Pressure Landing Page 