Future Generations and Water

Future Generations and Water

As new generations are born, the world changes...

In your lifetime, how has day-to-day life changed over the years? For example, you may have been born and raised in a non-digital world? TV and media channels were different, electric cars/ scooters etc were non-existent!

I was born in the 1950s, when computers were taking their first very tentative steps outside laboratories, and Sputnik 1 had spooked the United States. There is now barely a day when I do not spend hours in front of a computer monitor, and barely a week when I do not watch a movie or two on Freesat. I was born at the height of the ‘cold war’, when the threat of nuclear annihilation haunted the lives of everyone who paid attention to world events. That fear for me dissipated only on the collapse of the Soviet Union. For ten years we thought that the world had become much safer, and that the dark cloud of threat no longer hung over our lives, although it was a few more years before the IRA bombing stopped … until the World Trade Centre in New York City was attacked by Islamic terrorists, followed by a now-endless succession of terrorist attacks, and the fear has returned. I was born before the first scheduled transatlantic passenger jet service was launched, and now I watch the con-trails of countless aircraft growling across the sky between continental Europe and North America. I was born when it was necessary to walk to the Post Office to make a telephone call, whereas now most people have a telephone in their pocket. I was born when many shops had an early-closing day, and supermarkets were still a new idea in Britain. Now my family and I receive weekly grocery deliveries from Tesco or Sainsburys at a time of our choosing. I was born when the coinage mostly showed the heads of high-status men, whereas the only such coins I see today are those that I dig up in the garden. I was born shortly after tobacco smoking among men in Britain reached a peak of 82%, but long before tobacco smoking among women reached its peak of 45%, and as a child I would suffer from bronchitis every year. Today, less than 15% of UK adults smoke tobacco (and 3.3% smoke marijuana). I was born when Francis Crick and James Watson had just announced that every cell in my body was determined by a double-helix of DNA, and now my entire genome could be sequenced, should I wish it. I was born when thalidomide was a drug prescribed to alleviate ‘morning sickness’, and not the medical tragedy for which it later became known – as a result of which greater drug regulation and monitoring were introduced. But for the post-war development of a very wide range of pharmaceuticals, including vaccines against the ‘flu and coronavirus, it is unlikely that I would still be alive, as I take daily medication for high blood pressure, low bone density (diagnosed using an MRI body scanner) and a hiatus hernia. I was born in London smog, and now the air quality has improved in parts of that city that are not choked with traffic. I was born when many rivers in Britain were toxic with industrial chemicals, whereas now they are just contaminated with sewage effluent and agricultural run-off. I was born when an accident at Windscale contaminated Britain’s milk with radioactive strontium 90, and there was a major nuclear explosion at Kyshtym in the Soviet Union; but long before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident; and also long before a disaster at Chernobyl led to radioactive rain falling on much of Britain; and even longer before the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Now the UK government is discussing the construction of many more nuclear reactors. I guess that some things don’t change, and I live with a constant, albeit low, level of fear of the next nuclear disaster. I was born at a time when winters were cold, wet and windy, and summers were pleasant, although sometimes wet and windy – it was easy to distinguish between the seasons. There is now a long period of drought every summer, where I live, and the mid-November weather is as mild as late September used to be – the seasons are less well defined, and the trees in my orchard no longer know when to blossom to attract pollinating insects.

How do you feel about these changes?

I consider the developments in medical technology during my lifetime to be highly desirable, which almost eclipses everything else. I am less in awe of electronic technological developments than I used to be. I am happy to have been part of campaigning to improve the quality of the environment, but frustrated that our efforts have been too little, too late, and that global warming is already burning and flooding its way round the world. As I did when I was younger, I find it hard not to fear for the future, and I am disappointed that some of our elected politicians appear repeatedly to sink to the lowest common denominators of nationalism and lining their own pockets, not least because they inspire in me no confidence at all.

Given the changes over time, what do you think are the opportunities and challenges for future generations? It could be your children, your grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc.

The world is run by national and international corporate businesses. The digital world that they have created is one in which we, and our descendants, may run around like mice in a maze. It no longer feels like elected governments are in control, but perhaps they never really were. The opportunities for ordinary people of future generations will probably be much the same as they always have been: to find a gravy-train that you are willing to jump on and hang on as tightly as possible until it is time to jump off. (Despite repeated SWOT analyses, I found doing so almost impossible, and have spent too much of my life trying to ‘save the world’.) The principal challenges for future generations will be for conscientious individuals to find a place in a world dominated by corporate giants, and to work out how to effect meaningful change; for ordinary people to find work that does not have to be subsidised by the government; and for everyone to accept that in order to slow global warming, some serious lifestyle sacrifices are going to have to be made by everyone in Britain, including by the corporate giants.

What opportunities/ benefits do the future generations gain that you may have had or was not present before? Why?

Future generations will have better health care (even if it requires waiting for eight hours in an ambulance before receiving it), and better communication technology.

Similarly, what do you think are the challenges, drawbacks for future generations? Why?

Without wishing to be overly partisan, political leadership in Britain is poor, and many people respond with greater enthusiasm to the enticements of Mark Zuckerberg, Geoff Bezos and Elon Musk. Until people see that the quality of governance depends on who they elect to political office then the future belongs to those who control social media and online commerce websites, who view individuals as service users and customers.

What worries (if any) do you have for future generations? Why?

My principal worry is the next pandemic, or maybe the one after that. Commercial exploitation of the planet has destabilised too many natural systems and undermined the resilience of the whole. I have no sense either that politicians have understood this, nor that the corporate sector cares. Future pandemics are inevitable. Beyond that, population movement of refugees from climate change (watch northern India and western China when the Himalayan glaciers have largely melted away) will be the largest the world has ever seen, and it is hard to imagine that it will be peaceful.

 

If we said: when you pay for your water bill, the charge may also include a proportion of investments made in water provision for the future. What are your thoughts and feelings toward this idea? Why?

Of course there should be financial investment for future infrastructure. I am very happy that you are thinking about future infrastructure.

However, you have, for me, a significant hurdle to overcome: you operate in a commercial environment. How do I know you are not simply going to pocket the money, pay your executives even more than they currently get paid (they are remunerated about five times more than were they to work in the Civil Service), and pay dividends to your share-holders to drive up the share price? I should prefer were you owned by the taxpayer and not by shareholders, and that your executives were civil servants. I have nothing personal against your executives, and have little doubt that they are very fine people, but they are operating in a commercial environment that, until I can be convinced otherwise, I view as part of the problem, not the solution.

To what extent do you feel it is important to only pay for what you use, and not include a proportion for future investment in water provision. Please explain your reasons behind your answer.

Your question could be improved. The issue is not about whether or not I pay for what I use, it is how much I pay for what I use. I have no choice but to pay for what I use, and the charges you make include a portion for future infrastructure investment. Of course there should be financial investment for future infrastructure, and I am willing to pay for it. I am very happy that you should be thinking about future infrastructure.

What if we said: we expect younger generations i.e Gen Z and those born after 2010 are likely to be more financially stretched and are likely to have responsibility for supporting a larger older population who may not be financially secure. How does this change your perspective and why?

I have absolutely no wish for you to engage in social engineering, and even less wish for you to be charging me for it. In my view you should be doing now what is required to provide water from now into the future, not trying to guess whether future generations can afford your charges.

What, if anything, could convince you to take on higher bills now to support future generations?

Probably nothing.