The current Chairman and former CEO of
Nestlé, the largest producer of food products in the world, believes
that the answer to global water issues is privatization. This statement
is on record from the wonderful company that has peddled junk food in
the Amazon, has invested money to thwart the labeling of GMO-filled
products, has a disturbing health and ethics record for its infant
formula, and has deployed a cyber army to monitor Internet criticism and
shape discussions in social media.
In the small Pakistani community of Bhati
Dilwan, a former village councilor says children are being sickened by
filthy water. Who's to blame? He says it's bottled water-maker Nestlé,
which dug a deep well that is depriving locals of potable water. “The
water is not only very dirty, but the water level sank from 100 to 300
to 400 feet,” Dilwan says.
This is apparently the company we should
trust to manage our water, despite the record of large bottling
companies like Nestlé having a track record of creating shortages.
Large multinational beverage companies
are usually given water-well privileges (and even tax breaks) over
citizens because they create jobs, which is apparently more important to
the local governments than water rights to other taxpaying citizens.
These companies such as Coca Cola and Nestlé (which bottles suburban
Michigan well-water and calls it Poland Spring) suck up millions of
gallons of water, leaving the public to suffer with any shortages.
The testimony that was made of a former
village councilor of Bhati Dilwan is a key moment in the new documentary
film “Bottled Life” by Swiss filmmaker Urs Schnell and journalist Res
Gehriger. The village councilor interviewed in the film says Nestlé
refused the village’s request for clean water to be piped in.
The notoriously bad drinking water in
Pakistan and elsewhere is the reason for the success of the Pure Life
brand. A good 10 years ago, the Swiss food company began adding minerals
to ground water and bottling it. Today, Pure Life Purified Water
Enhanced With Minerals is the largest water brand in the world – “a
jewel in our portfolio,” according to John Harris, head of Nestlé
Waters.
But Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe,
believes that “access to water is not a public right.” Nor is it a human
right. So if privatization is the answer, is this the company in which
the public should place its trust?
Here is just one example, among many, of his company’s concern for the public thus far:
In view of the fact that every day more
children die from drinking dirty water than AIDS, war, traffic accidents
and malaria put together, Maude Barlow, a former UN chief adviser for
water issues, states: “When a company like Nestlé comes along and says,
Pure Life is the answer, we’re selling you your own ground water while
nothing comes out of your faucets anymore or if it does it’s undrinkable
– that’s more than irresponsible, that’s practically a criminal act.”
In response to questions put to it by Tages Anzeiger,
Nestlé communicated in writing that it had built two water filtering
facilities that were providing over 10,000 people in Pakistan’s
Sheikhupura with clean drinking water. Construction of a further
facility was planned for 2012. The company said they had also built two
schools in Sheikhupura.
Nestlé is not the only company to create a
huge business with big profit potential by bottling ground water --
Danone and Coca-Cola do it too. However, the way Nestlé goes about it,
as depicted in the film, is in stark contrast to the image the company
seeks to project. Nestlé likes to see itself as a global problem solver
out not only for profits but to “create shared values.” In 2007, when
Schnell and Gehriger began working on the movie, then Nestlé spokesman
François-Xavier Perroud called it "the wrong film at the wrong time."
Several times between 2007 and 2009 the company denined requests for
interviews with company managers. It also refused to allow visits to
bottling facilities.
The company’s present spokesperson, Melanie Kohli, told the Tages Anzeiger
that Nestlé had reached the conclusion that the project would reflect a
one-sided and unfair view of company activity and those who worked for
Nestlé. “Consequently, we declined to work with the filmmakers. Our
carefully considered decision was the right one at the time.”
racking the company's record, from Ethiopia to Nigeria
Undeterred, journalist Gehriger visited a
refugee camp in Ethiopia where, in 2003, Nestlé had installed a water
treatment facility for $750,000. Two years later, the company pulled
out. Since then the facility has not been functioning properly, and
water shortages have returned.
In Lagos, Nigeria, Gehriger discovered
that families have to spend up to half their household budget on water
in canisters, and that only those who can afford it drink Pure Life.
Then there are the communities in the U.S. state of Maine who are
fighting Nestlé because it pumps ground water and spring water in huge
quantities – which it can do legally: whoever owns land can pump as much
water as they like.
Nestlé pumps several million cubic meters
annually and transports the water in tanker trucks to bottling plants.
“They’re using our water to make profits, a liter doesn't even cost them
a cent,” one woman complains. “They’re selling the water we use to
flush toilets and wash our hands as expensive spring water,” says
another. But since Nestlé brings the communities tax dollars, officials
welcome the company, which is supported by an armada of lawyers and PR
people.
Why? Because if the community had fresh
water piped in, it would deprive Nestlé of its lucrative market in water
bottled under the Pure Life brand.
Source:
worldcrunch.com
www.globalresearch.ca
http://worldtruth.tv
