Would you drink a glass of water from a river?
Sounds like a bit of a daft question.
But what if you were the boss of a water company at the centre of a row over sewage dumping?
And the challenge came from a high-profile eco-campaigner?
That was the situation faced by Scottish Water.
The publicly owned company found itself in a tricky PR situation after it revealed it spilt at least 30 million cubic metres of wastewater into Scottish waterways last year.
That is reportedly enough to fill 12,000 Olympic swimming pools – a great way to bring complicated numbers to life in the media, something we often highlight during our media training courses.
The nationalised water company reported 24,398 overflow events – or sewage dumps – in 2024, which lasted for 208,377 hours.
A company spokesman defended the figures, claiming only one per cent of runoff is wastewater from toilets and that the other 99 per cent is rainwater, road runoff, and grey water.
And that was enough for Feargal Sharkey to spring into action and present CEO Alex Plant with a challenge and a comms headache.
The former Undertones frontman posted on X: “It’s 99 per cent rainwater they scream.
“Well, Mr Plant, drink a glass of your 99% rainwater from a sewage overflow of my choosing, and I’ll donate £1,000 of my money to a charity of your choosing. Clock’s ticking.”
It’s not an appetising offer. But it grabbed the media's attention and resulted in headlines that would have left an unpleasant taste.
Great coverage.
But we should not be surprised.
Mr Sharkey has become a powerful environmental communicator – and a prominent thorn in the side of water companies.
He’s also had previous success with this ‘challenge’ approach, gaining similar coverage when making the same offer to the bosses of Thames Water and Southern Water.
This water drinking challenge reminds me of an infamous media interview involving Patrick Moore that we highlighted before in our media training blogs.
No, not the late Sky At Night host.
It was the Dr Moore who appeared on Canal+ to support an American agrochemical company.
Although not a paid lobbyist for Monsanto, Dr Moore was arguing glyphosate, the main ingredient in its Roundup weed killer, is not particularly dangerous.
“I do not believe that glyphosate in Argentina is causing increases in cancer,” he told the programme Special Investigation. “You can drink a whole quart of it, and it won’t hurt you.”
A bold statement and one that the interviewer seemed to regard as a challenge asking: “You want to drink some? We have some here.”
To this, Dr Moore replied: “I’d be happy to actually.”
But he immediately added: “Not really, but I know it wouldn’t hurt me.”
When invited to drink it again, Dr Moore said: “I’m not stupid.”
A memorable media interview mess.
The water challenge also brought back memories of John Gummer.
The politician was the Minister of Agriculture at the height of the BSE crisis.
He attempted to reassure the public that British beef was safe by inviting newspapers and camera crews to photograph him trying to feed a beefburger to his four-year-old daughter, Cordelia.
Although she refused, he took a bite and said it was "absolutely delicious".
The stunt turned him into a figure of fun and remains the thing his political career is best remembered for.
More recently, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ate "very delicious" fish sashimi from Fukushima, in a video released by the Japanese government.
The move followed a row over the discharge into the sea of treated radioactive wastewater from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown, with China banning seafood products from Japan.
Anyone else for fission chips?
But let’s get back on track.
What can water companies do about Mr Sharkey and his challenges?
Well, the current approach has been to ignore them and hope they flow away.
I can’t see any record of a challenge being accepted or a photo of a CEO drinking delicious water from a sewage overflow.
But regardless of whether the water has an amber/brown tinge, silence is not golden. And it is not an approach we recommend during our crisis comms training.
The silence makes it easier for more challenges to be offered in future every time new statistics are issued, for example in annual reports.
And that will result in more negative coverage, which in turn impacts how the public feels about those who look after our water.
A better approach would surely be to acknowledge the challenge.
Then, explain why drinking the water is not advisable. Sewage aside, there must be other reasons why drinking it could be a health hazard.
And then go on to outline what you have done to improve water quality and what you are doing next.
The boss could go further still and make the £1,000 donation to a charity – something that could also appease some public anger over their pay.
One thing is for certain if I worked in comms for a water company, I would add Feargal Sharkey and his challenges to my crisis comms plan.
Unlike the sewage, he can’t be flushed away.
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