Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water treatment in most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north Wiltshire, far west Kent, and some other parts of England; like other water companies, it has a monopoly in the regions it serves.
Thames Water's headquarters in Reading
Water pumping station at Walton-on-Thames
Chalk aquifer borehole under the North Downs at Albury
Thames Water at work in Muswell Hill, London
Water privatisation in England and Wales
The water privatisation in England and Wales involved the transfer of the provision of water and wastewater services in England and Wales from the state to the private sector in 1989, through the sale of the ten regional water authorities (RWA). The potable water supply as well as the sewerage and sewage disposal functions of each RWA were transferred to privately-owned companies.
Until the 1980s, universal provision of drinking water and sewerage services in England and Wales was considered a public health service. The water industry was privatised in 1989, according to the Conservative government's programme.
Joseph Chamberlain (1909)
