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Swimming Through Sewage

Britain is encouraging people back into rivers and coastal waters for wellbeing and recovery. But after years of pollution, regulatory failure and collapsing public trust, many swimmers are left navigating a public health gamble.

Ewan Burrowes

May 29, 2026

Dirty Business: the true story of the sewage scandal. Part 2

As public outrage over Dirty Business grows, Tim Smedley reconnects with campaigner Ash Smith to examine the deeper questions still haunting Britain’s sewage scandal: who really regulates the regulators, why has so little changed, and can public pressure finally force a reckoning over the ownership of water itself?

Tim Smedley

May 26, 2026

Prescribed to Swim, Warned Not to Swallow

As GPs increasingly prescribe wild swimming to improve mental and physical wellbeing, Britain’s polluted rivers and coastlines are turning a simple act of recovery into a public health gamble.

Shaun Warren

May 20, 2026

Dirty Business: the true story of the sewage scandal. Part 1

A retired detective, a polluted Cotswold river, and a regulatory system hollowed out from within. In the first part of this investigation, Tim Smedley traces how Britain’s sewage scandal grew from local suspicion into a national crisis that would eventually become Channel 4’s Dirty Business.

Tim Smedley

May 13, 2026

The Crypto Mine Next Door: How Data Centres Are Gulping Britain’s Water

The UK’s digital boom is quietly becoming a water story. As Tim Smedley warned in last week’s Water Bankruptcy feature on WaterMatters, the country is edging towards a systemic crunch, and the hidden water demands of AI, crypto, and cloud data centres are now accelerating the pressure.

Shaun Warren

May 6, 2026

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