How Much Harder Can It Get?

 “Rango” is a 2011 animated film set in Nevada. The villain, (capitalist) is a tortoise, Tortoise John who is controlling the water supply to the desert town of Dirt for his own nefarious ends. He is eventually overcome by a chameleon named Rango.

 

The “Mail Online”, 23\1\23, has a story about water, this life necessary resource:

 

Residents in drought-hit Arizona town skip showers and use rainwater to flush toilets after supply was cut off - while neighbouring luxury $60,000-a-year golf course keeps its sprinklers on

• Over 500 families in the sleepy suburb of Rio Verde Foothills have just days before their water tanks run dry

• Neighbouring city Scottsdale said it cut off the town's water to conserve supply for its own residents - but next door golf course remains lush and green

• Home owners in the suburb are now suing Scottsdale - who they say are unwilling to work to a solution - to reinstate their water supply.

Do English and Welsh water customers need to start investing in water butts and rain barrels? Readers must decide how much longer they are going to allow capitalism to accelerate poverty and ill health of the class which runs capitalism for the ruling class and which is exploited by that class. Spoiler alert: the answer is not higher taxation of the exploiters.

 

“English and Welsh households are expected to see their water and sewage bills surging 7.5% starting April, marking the biggest increase in nearly 20 years, the country’s industry body Water UK announced on Thursday.

 

The hike will see customers pay around £1.23 ($1.51) a day on average – an increase of £0.08 ($0.10) per day, or £448 ($551) per year, £31 ($38) more than in 2022.

The updated figures come amid warnings that one in five customers are already finding it difficult to pay. Consumer groups are warning that the increase could further squeeze households hit by the raging energy crisis.

However, Water UK highlighted that the hike for most customers across England and Wales will be below inflation. The data takes into account that the November CPIH (Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs), set as the benchmark by the regulator, was 9.3%.

In December, the measure of the rate of overall price rises in the UK was 10.5%.

“Water bills remain lower, in real terms, than they were a decade ago,” Water UK said, adding that the rise reflected higher energy costs, with water firms using about 2% of the UK’s electricity.

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said there was a postcode lottery of social tariff schemes, meaning some people who need help with their bills “slip through the net.”

“These increases will bring more uncertainty to struggling households at a time when they can't be certain they will get the help they need,” CCW chief executive Emma Clancy told Sky News.”

RT 4\2\23

Dave C.