The keeper of the wells fouled them and was paid more. Old codes weep
In every settlement worth the name, one law preceded all others: the keeper of the water answers for the water. Now hear the modern arrangement. Wessex Water, forbidden its bonuses as punishment for sewage in the rivers, raised its chief's base wage 14% — to £670,000, near eighteen times the wage of the ordinary worker who actually touches the pipes.
The workers received 3.5%. The workers, mark you, are the ones in the trench with the wrench. The office got the harvest; the field got the gleanings. This ordering of rewards tells you everything about an age.
Elsewhere the pattern repeats through 'parent companies' — money handed down from upstairs like weather, £500,000 here, £660,000 there, labelled retention, meaning: paid to remain. Once, remaining was called duty, and it was free.
The rivers, meanwhile, carry what they carry. A man who fouls the well his children drink from was once the village's shame; no committee was needed to name him. Ofwat promises disclosure. The old code promised the stocks. Mend the pipes. Then rest.