Murky Water - Challenging an Unsustainable System

Our water system is a mess. Rising bills and rivers full of sewage grab the headlines, but the greater threat is climate crisis, bringing increased drought and flooding.

This book exposes the many problems with our unsustainable water system. Unfair charges limit spending on infrastructure, while financial extraction has turned the water companies into debt-burdened zombies in an increasingly fragmented system.

Reforming regulation and tinkering with tariffs will not be enough, and public ownership is just the first step. Murky water shows that the system can only be made sustainable through a radical overhaul of how it is owned, managed, funded and planned. We need a new kind of water management, with national and catchment planning and coordinated action by landowners, local authorities and water companies.

Westminster and Whitehall currently stand in the way. To overcome their resistance and secure a sustainable future, we must ignite a social movement capable of challenging power.

About the author

Julie Froud is Professor of Financial Innovation at Manchester Business School and a member of CRESCColin Haslam is Professor in Accounting/Finance at Queen Mary, University of LondonSukhdev Johal is Chair in Accounting & Strategy at Queen Mary University of London

Product details

• Authors: Luca Calafati, Luca Froud Calafati, Froud Julie, Haslam Colin, Johal Sukhdev, Williams Karel
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 14.10.2025
• EAN: 9781526188694
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-8869-4
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Manchester Capitalism
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Economics; Economics, finance, business & management, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Environmental / Water Supply, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Environmental Policy, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Infrastructure, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Water supply & treatment, Public ownership / nationalization, Economics, finance, business and management, Water industries