Parasites aren’t just in our water supply – the industry is full of them

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

People collecting bottled water at Freshwater car park in Brixham (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Since privatisation, we have seen a rise in the dangers from waterborne illness due to the deliberate dumping of raw sewage into our seas and rivers. Now we have cases at the other end of the system with pollution in drinking water.

Seems to me that cryptosporidium is only one of the parasites in the water industry that needs to be dealt with.

G Forward

Stirling

We don’t just need more teachers – we need the right ones

Further to Ryan Coogan’s excellent piece about helping working-class communities, I don’t think recruiting 6,500 extra teachers is necessarily going to help working-class students when the curriculum no longer funds the expensive subjects like metalwork, woodwork, graphic design, textiles and cookery classes I attended as a working class boy.

We need the right type of teachers, the right type of curriculum, and the ready money to support the diversity of working-class culture.

Kartar Uppal

West Midlands

Stop punishing motorists

Every day we see in the news that another district or county council has, without proper public consultation, decided to impose a blanket wide change from 30 to 20mph on all roads in their area. Ironically this is being funded by the government, via the Transforming Cities Fund, which is at odds with the Department of Transport’s advice that state councils must be circumspect and limited when making such changes.

So what is going on? Why are local authorities hell-bent on making sweeping changes that many residents strongly object to and are against government policy? Surely local councils should be spending money fixing potholes and not causing even more stress to residents and motorists.

David Chandler

Milton Keynes

WHO put you in charge?

It’s outrageous that we’re even considering giving the WHO more power.

With its track record of major blunders, poor leadership and conflicts of interest, I have zero faith in the WHO managing a global pandemic or any health crisis.

We must control our own health decisions, not leave them to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.

Elena Kern

Address supplied

You can’t stop language from evolving

Seeing people so up in arms about the term “global majority” has left me confused. It seems like a fairly harmless attempt to empower marginalised communities by reminding us that there is a world outside of our white, Anglocentric bubble (something that the term “minority” does not do).

Moreover, it seems like another example of people being surprised that language changes – and often becomes more nuanced, refined, and inclusive – with time. Trying to fight against it is like trying to fight against the tide – useless, exhausting and tedious.

Stephen Bloom

Canterbury