@fazalmajid@social.vivaldi.net
2026-09-02 08:49 UTC
The engineer interviewed lists:
* selling off pumping stations to housing developers, which means there isn't capacity during periods of drought
* reducing pressure to slow leaks instead of fixing them
* hiring freezes means there are no more qualified staff to replace the ones retiring
Replies (1)
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@fazalmajid@social.vivaldi.net 2026-09-02 08:51
Some commentators hyperventilate about China's huge new embassy, but did you know until last year UK Power Networks, the operator for the electric grid in London and most of Southeast England, was owned by a Hong-Kong company? Xi Jinping thus had the means to plunge the UK's most critical areas into darkness at the stroke of a pen. You can't make incompetence like that up. Fortunately, it's been acquired by French company Engie, so the French had to come and rescue the British (and previously it was owned by the French state-owned utility EDF, ÉlectricitÉ de France).