Exclusive: Ofwat to investigate circumstances around payment of dividend to intermediate parent company

The board of Thames Water agreed to pay a £150m dividend hours before its shareholders U-turned on plans to pump emergency funding into the struggling water supplier, the Guardian can reveal.

The water industry regulator was examining the decision by the debt-laden company’s board to sign off the payout at a meeting on 27 March, sources said.

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© Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/REX/Shutterstock

Water quality testing by campaigners shows levels up to 27 times acceptable limit for bathing as rowers told to take precautions

Harmful E coli bacteria have been found at very high levels at Henley, days before elite rowers compete in the international regatta there.

Water quality testing in the Henley Mile, part of the regatta course outside the Oxfordshire town, has revealed mean levels of 1,213 E coli colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water, across 27 tests. Where E coli levels are above 900 CFU/100ml, the water quality is deemed poor, according to bathing water designations, and is a threat to public health.

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

State not acting fast enough to build desalination stations to deal with dwindling rainfall and resulting drought, say critics

On 8 June, anger over months of water rationing spilled over in the drought-stricken central Algerian town of Tiaret, where balaclava-wearing demonstrators barricaded roads and burned tyres.

Rationing had been introduced to deal with a drought in parts of Algeria and neighbouring Morocco where the amount of rainfall that had historically replenished critical reservoirs was much reduced. Taps had been running dry for months, forcing people in the region – a semi-arid, high-desert plateau increasingly plagued by extreme heat – to queue to access water.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

On a journey along the Thames – where fury at pollution has spawned a wave of local activism – it is clear that the decline of rivers is among this government’s worst legacies

Red kites swoop above Fawley Meadows as Dave Wallace dips a sampling beaker into the deep green water of the River Thames on a late spring day. A sharp wind blows droplets upstream towards the arches of Henley Bridge, while the might of the river, its path here straight and wide, pulls downstream towards Windsor, on its 215-mile odyssey to the North Sea.

Today, the water meadows along its banks host blue and white striped marquees, lined up in uniform rows for the Henley regatta. After the rowers depart, the river bears the swimmers who follow. They dip, jump and dive its depths at an annual festival of open water races, echoing the galas that took place in Victorian days.

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© Composite: Guardian Design Team/Getty

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© Composite: Guardian Design Team/Getty

It was the second scheduled spacewalk by NASA astronauts aboard the space station that faced an interruption this month.

© NASA Johnson

Canada's 4th most populous city could run out of water in the coming days.

Despite being served by 23 reservoirs, Calgary is now relying one plant to produce water for a population of nearly 1.5 million people, not including surrounding communities. There is no timeline for a fix. Calgary's water emergency also prompts Edmonton, the 5th largest populous city in the country, to take a look at their situation. It's not exactly great, either.

At an industry presentation about dangerous “forever chemicals,” lawyers predicted a wave of lawsuits that could dwarf asbestos litigation, audio from the event revealed.

© E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune, via Getty Images