Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login A fter bubbling away for years, the crisis in England’s water industry is closing in on boiling point. And Macquarie Group, with more than $3 billion invested in the sector and its UK reputation on the line, will be feeling the heat.

Britain’s outbreak of public fury over the often deplorable state of its sewage-infested rivers and beaches is not new. But it is now making corporate headlines, with the near collapse of the formerly Macquarie-controlled mega-utility Thames Water. Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake has railed against the British media for taking what she called “a very narrow narrative” on her company’s tenure at Thames Water.

And it’s also hitting England in one of its most tender spots: it’s ruining the country’s pomp and pageantry. The latest high-water mark came in late March, when the crisis lapped into one of the country’s great annual traditions: the Oxford-Cambridge boat race. It may have been a case of sore losers rather than E.

coli poisoning, but Oxford’s team hit the headlines with complaints about the rank waters of the Thames. Three Oxford rowers had a stomach bug before the race, and the Cambridge team decided against the usual victory celebration of throwing their coxswain into the river. It’s not the only Thames tradition to be sucked into the crisis.

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