Why hasn’t Dirty Business cut through in the same way as Mr Bates vs The Post Office?
Partly, perhaps, because it dealt with historic failures rather than unfolding injustice. Could it be that it didn’t reveal something fundamentally new and that public awareness of water sector investigations has been building for years? Sewage spills, regulatory failings and corporate missteps are bad – but no longer unfamiliar.
But Dirty Business has done something important. It’s reminded us that water is not just a policy issue or a corporate one. It’s a human story.
The documentary centred on campaigners, families affected by pollution and communities living with the consequences of failure. It showed the persistence of those who refused to give up. It captured anger, grief and determination. In doing so, it highlighted something essential. Water touches all of us. We are bound to it – physically, socially and economically. It shapes our health and our landscapes. It reaches across our daily lives.
Water is more than a utility, or a line on a bill, or a performance metric. It’s fundamental.
Beyond heroes and villains: The people inside the system
The film also reflected a very human tendency in storytelling. It leaned into a familiar trope of heroes and villains, and good versus bad. Campaigners were resolute truth-tellers. Industry figures and regulators were portrayed as evasive, hollow, vacuous PR types or conspiratorial corporate shills.
Sure, that framing makes for compelling television. But it’s reductive and risks narrowing the conversation.
The water sector is made up of thousands of people. Engineers who chose the field because they care about rivers. Scientists working to improve monitoring. Operators trying to manage ageing infrastructure under immense pressure. Regulators wrestling with imperfect tools. You don’t build a career in water without, in some way, caring about its future.
That doesn’t excuse failure or diminish the lived experiences of communities harmed by poor performance. Accountability matters. Transparency matters. And trust must be rebuilt.
But if we are serious about turning things around, we must recognise that the future of water will not be shaped solely by campaigners or commentators, but also by the people inside the system.
From awareness to action
We are intrinsically connected to water’s fate. We are also its custodians. The solutions will come from people, from better leadership, stronger governance, smarter engineering and deeper community engagement. Cultural change, as much as structural reform, is transforming the industry.
If Dirty Business did one powerful thing, it was to humanise water. The next step is to humanise the entire story.
That means telling the stories not only of those harmed, but also of those striving, sometimes quietly, to make things better from within. It means recognising the complexity of built systems, which are run and ultimately changed by people.
Water’s future will not be decided by narrative alone. It will be decided by human action.
And that makes it all of our story.
If you want to discuss the water sector in greater detail, please contact Tom Gallagher, Senior Account Manager at Copper Consultancy.