Fracking: A dehydrated UK, watered only by capitalism, When the UK’s water infrastructure is already in severe drought, why is fracking even being considered?

Fracking: A dehydrated UK, watered only by capitalism, When the UK’s water infrastructure is already in severe drought, why is fracking even being considered? by Siobhan Courtney, May 7, 2012, Aljazeera
Fracking: environmental and human destruction at its very worst. Groundwater contamination, billions of gallons of fresh water squandered, small earthquakes, toxic air emissions, reports of radiation, and not even tap water going up in flames are enough to halt the decimation of our precious countryside, in an attempt to extract copious volumes of natural gas from the unearthed, sedimentary shale rocks below. Desperate destroyers, shielded within a self-regulating industry, think of nothing but profit as they hydraulically fracture rocks with a lethal cocktail of chemicals, sand and billions and billions of gallons of fresh water. Fracking is the latest devastating testament to how destructive capitalism has suffocated and engulfed our precious planet. … If yet another reason was needed why fracking should not even be contemplated in the UK, the Environment Agency has declared that East Anglia, the South East, parts of Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South West are officially in drought. We have been banned from using hosepipes, and the impact on farming, the environment and water supplies is nothing short of a dire emergency, yet companies will willingly sell the sacred water to power fracking in the UK. This, of course, would have never been allowed to happen if water stayed as it was intended to be – a public utility. Thatcherism changed all that, however, and our water was placed into the grubby, profit-grabbing claws of private companies. The hypocritical private companies now stand over the British public, instructing them to be mindful and responsible with personal water consumption. Golden nuggets of advice are bombarded upon us: “Take a shower instead of a bath”; “Don’t forget to turn off the tap when brushing your teeth”; and “If you try and use a hosepipe to water your plants or vegetables, a £1,000 ($1,600) fine awaits”. … Cuadrilla refused to answer my question of how much they paid United Utilities for the 2 million gallons of water (four Olympic sized swimming pools) they used for just one fracking test. A spokesperson said: “We don’t answer questions about costs for individual items deployed in operations.” … The billions of gallons of fresh water that will be flippantly flushed into the ground is the very water that passes our lips, falls on our faces and waters our living organisms. Twisted and turned into polluted, toxic fracking fluid. It will never – and can never – be returned to the freshwater it originally started out as. It is destroyed and decimated forever.