The water industry is rarely out of the spotlight these days but, by any standards, it's been an extraordinary week.

You may have seen the news that Thames Water, the UK's largest water and wastewater service, is teetering on the brink of collapse after amassing £14bn of debt that its wealthy owners seem unable, or unwilling, to pay back.

This was followed by the revelation that a further four water companies, including Southern Water and Yorkshire water, are being 'closely monitored' due to similarly precarious financial situations.

Noted political economist, Richard Murphy, wrote an astonishing Twitter thread (which can be read by clicking here) in which he pulled apart the finances of the industry and concluded that it is 'environmentally insolvent'.

One of his shocking revelations was that the operating profit of the industry is 38%. Given this astonishingly high margin, and that each company operates as a monopoly with no competition, you might wonder how they've racked up so much debt. The answer is privatisation.

Regardless of enormous profit levels, water companies withdraw even more as dividends. As a result, debt has increased and investment has stagnated. Indeed, we have been told that if we want to end sewage pollution, our bills may have to rise by 73%.

The media have reported that the government are making emergency preparations to return Thames Water to 'temporary' public ownership in the event of a collapse. But why should we bail them out, only for the business to be resold to another overseas investor?

Today I'm calling on each of you to spend five minutes writing an e-mail to the Environment Secretary Therese Coffey (therese.coffey.mp@parliament.uk) and the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (rishi.sunak.mp@parliament.uk) urging them to right a 34 year wrong and keep the faltering water companies in public ownership.

Change will only come if we work together and put the government under pressure. If just one out of every ten of you takes this action, they'll know that we're not going give up this fight.

It's our water, our money and it's time for us to take back control.

Ed Acteson