Features Sustainability Water Issues
Petition demands Nestlé reduce pumping

July 4, 2013, Ontario – More than 140,000 consumers in Canada and across the globe are joining with the global corporate watchdog, SumOfUs.org, demanding that Nestlé cut back on water pumping during drought conditions for their operations in Aberfoyle, Ont.

Nestlé recently renewed its permit until 2017 to take about 1.1 million litres of water per day from Hillsburgh, Ont. for its bottling operations in nearby Aberfoyle – even during drought conditions while there are by-laws on water use for households.

The surrounding communities that rely on the aquifer have by-laws to restrict its access to their own water during dry conditions in the summer. Maude Barlow, the Council of Canadians, and Ecojustice are also fighting back against Nestlé and the Ontario government office that handed out its permit asking the company to do the right thing and cut back on water pumping operations while their neighbors suffer under drought conditions.

“Nestlé’s appetite to commodify water and natural remedies is a recurring strategy by a corporation with a pattern of seeking to privatize and profit from traditional knowledge and our natural resources,” explained Angus Wong, Canadian Campaigner for SumOfUs.org. “Nestlé's Chairman and former CEO once infamously declared that ‘access to water should not be a public right,’ and now his company is putting into practice its belief that every resource should be commodified and sold off. Nestlé is sucking up water from a Canadian watershed during drought conditions — to bottle and sell it off.”

The global retail giant has been in the news lately for attempting to profit from natural resources. Last month, more than 220,000 SumOfUs.org supporters signed a petition against Nestlé's effort to patent the fennel flower, a cure-all medicinal remedy for millions of people in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia.

Several days after launching the petition, a video emerged showing Nestlé’s Chairman claiming that the idea that water is a human right comes from “extremist” NGOs and that water should have a market value.

SIGN ON HERE: http://action.sumofus.org/a/nestle-water-ontario/4/2/?sub=pr