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I think they were talking about this. I was driving home so was not 100% listening to it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68649594
Fergal Sharky was giving his 2p worth as well. One of the contributors was saying that private ownership in the UK and public ownership in NI wasn't working. Didn't come up with a solution though iirc
midlife-
Problem in NI is that we don't have a government half the time, the place has barely been maintained for decades and maintenance isn't a thing here, things get fixed when broken. (I'm painting a broad stroke here of course) and our council rates were supposed to pay for water upkeep...
Privatised or public, water assets need upgrading and upkeep, like housing.
On top others happily dump shit in the water, and more and more chemicals need to be cleaned out. More costs. The agricultural department has been ultra lax enforcing shit dumps by farmers / enforcing proper fertilizer use.
So people expecting prices to stay low because water is necessary conflicts with the real costs. See also social housing.
Well that's my conclusion I might be wrong too :)
I still think profit making just adds to costs, but with government you can also get lack of maintenance (hello NHS) as "sorry it really has to cost more" is never a popular message :)
JWestland
I know very little about Northern Ireland, and in particular how its water/sewerage is funded. Did the report suggest that having no functioning government for long periods had contributed?