Kmflett's Blog

From Engels on the Irwell in 1844 to 2023: England’s rivers are a polluted mess

An Observer report has found that of 40 English rivers with protected habits 90% are polluted with agricultural waste and raw sewage.

It’s a reminder of what an unregulated and more importantly mostly unpoliced system of market capitalism produces as one of the side effects of profit making.

Its not a new reminder either.

Engels writing on the Condition of the Working Class in 1844 noted the condition of the Irk a tributary of the River Irwell that runs between Manchester and Salford:]

A narrow coal black foul smelling stream, full of debris and refuse…in dry weather a long stream of the most disgusting blackish-green slime pools are left standing on this bank, from the depths of which bubbles of miasmatic gas constantly arise..

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/12/an-utter-disgrace-90-of-englands-most-precious-river-habitats-blighted-by-raw-sewage-and-farming-pollution