The media is probably just setting the stage for significant water rates increases.
Someone has looked at my £30/mo bill and thought: there’s plenty more to squeeze out of you, just like gas/electric
The crisis is real. But it's essentially a crisis of greed and shortsightedness which is trashing the one common ecosystem we have and impoverishing most of the population in search of short-term profit - just numbers on a ledger "owned" by a tiny minority, which will never be turned into anything tangible, never mind beneficial.
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50802783 (2019)