West Coast Native News – by Derrick
Last month, Nestlé tried to patent a flower used by billions of people as a natural remedy and a video was widely shared with Nestle’s chairman saying that water is a commodity and not a human right. And now, we have discovered that Nestlé is sucking a Canadian community dry during drought conditions — just to sell bottled water.
Nestlé has won a permit to drain the local aquifer dry at any time, while the community of Hillsburg, Ontario has to restrict its water use during dry conditions every summer. This just isn’t right, and Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians, and Ecojustice are fighting back, taking Nestlé and Ontario Ministry of the Environment to court. However, it shouldn’t take a lawsuit for Nestlé to do the right thing. Lets tell Nestlé that community water access is more important than its profits. Demand Nestle to stop draining Hillsburgh’s water source during dry conditions for the sake of profits.
Tell Nestlé: stop draining Ontario’s water source during drought conditions to sell bottled water.
Currently, Nestlé has a permit through 2017 to take about 1.1 million litres of water per day from Hillsburgh for its bottling operations in Aberfoyle, even during drought conditions when households are put on water restrictions. A number of groups are fighting back. “Ontario must prioritize communities’ right to water above a private company’s thirst for profit,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson for the Council of Canadians.
Nestlé has been in the news a lot lately for attempting to profit from our natural resources. Last month, over220,000 SumOfUs supporters have signed our petition against Nestlé’s greedy grab to patent fennel flower, a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years for billions of people in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia. Several days after we send out our petition, a video emerged showed Nestlé’s chairperson claiming that the idea water is a human right comes from “extremist” NGOs and that water is a foodstuff that should have a market value. So it’s no surprise that Nestlé is now trying to drain water from an Ontario town for the sake of profit.
Nestlé’s appetite to commodify water and flowers is a recurring strategy by a corporation with a pattern of seeking to privatize and profit from traditional knowledge and our natural resources. By speaking out against the draining of our watersheds, you will be taking a stand against Nestlé’s evil strategy to commodifying everything in nature in the name of profit.
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Monsanto gets your food,nestle gets the water, the eugenicists pop a bottle of bubbly
Wake up
Some years ago Coca-Cola did this to some community in India having set up a kind of pre-fab factory to make use of the local aquifer. Then a billion or so cans and bottles later when the aquifer was drained they just up and left. Didn’t even have the decency to disassemble the place. Just left it there.
Yea Mick, that wouldn`t surprise me if they would do that, and then the city would take it over or some body would buy it – it would probobly end up as comunity housing or some detention center maybe.
The Bill and Melinda gates foundation were sponsoring the building of wells in nearby Indian villages while having a large investment in the company doing the aquifer draining.
The Ontario people shouldn’t be trying to protest via legal avenues as they have already been bought and paid for. They need to regularly monkey wrench the equipment used to drain the aquifer and make it too much of a headache to continue.
It really is beyond the point of legal remedies for any of this bullshit. I am not asking for or endorsing illegal acts that would be wrong and naughty. I know if I was to ever do anything that might be border line legal I would never ever speak about it to anyone and would do my best to operate alone as that is the safest method.
Demanding Nestle’s stop this is like talking to the wall. The article fails to mention the actual name of the marketed product. In New England, they’re known as POLAND SPRING. They have caused aquifer damage and many private wells have dried up. Well drilling is big business lately. To effectively stop this rape of natural resources stop purchasing the products.
Let us know the Brand names under which Nestlé sells its bottled wáter so we can boycott it.
I did a search of “Nestle Waters” for you. On their site, these are the Brands that they list: Acqua Panna, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Nestles Pure Life, Ozarka, Perrier, Poland Spring, Resourse, S. Pellegrino, Sweet Leaf Iced Teas, Tradewinds, and Zephyrhills.
Good one Angel 🙂
Boycott any product made or endorsed by this mongrel company. If it is only profits they understand speak to them in a language they can understand since “doing the right thing” and being moral doesn’t seem to be part of their cognizance.
These crooks are stealing the people’s water so they can sell it back to them in bottles, and that’s why the CEO of Nestle was recently saying that water is too precious a resource to allow us commoners to use it.
Nestle is stealing water where I live too. I guess it’s a lot more profitable than actually producing something for sale.
Absolutely ridiculous. A moral corporate model that ‘does no harm’ is needed.
Jayme, I think what is needed is a moral consumer base that has the intelligence not to buy this nonsense. Damage to the environment also occurs via the staggering amount of resources required to manufacture the plastic containers and transport the finished “product”. Like Walmart, they claim to support local economies by providing jobs. Few people understand those jobs often pay such low wages that many of their employees still need welfare and food stamps, at tax payer expense, just to get by. The truth is, large corporations like Nestle’s and Walmart make lucrative profits off the resources (labor, natural resources, and tax payer funds) of communities and benefit no one but themselves and the “town/city councils and zoning officials” that approve this contractual theft.
You have to let Nestlé drain the community water resource because their shareholders demand profit and the CEO needs a 2nd yacht, everything else be damned. And don’t forget jobs! It’s about jobs, goddamnit!
Jesse Ventura dedicated one of his conspiracy shows to this very topic about Nestles. Find it on You Tube and watch the whole episode.
Anyone care to wager that it won’t be long before Monsanto acquires Nestle?
Then they’ll control the food AND water. (or at least a good portion of it)