Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Nestlé from Stealing 1,838,451,342 Gallons of Water in CA
While selling it back at inflated costs
california
When hundreds of thousands of Californians expressed disdain over Nestlé Corporation’s water extraction from the San Bernardino National Forest during California’s worst drought in history, CEO of Nestle Waters North America Tim Brown seemed unphased.
The US Forest Service was allowing Nestlé to extract water and sell it back to Californians even though the company’s permit to do so had been expired in 1988. Though Nestlé ‘s permit was waiting in a pile of other permit applications, activists sued the National Forest Service when news of Nestlé’s extreme level of greed first came to light. They were also incensed because Nestlé has a long history of tapping public water supplies and then selling the water back to the public at an exorbitant cost.
Nestlé’s recent tapping of the San Bernardino National Forest reserve means that the company essentially stole 1,838,451,342 gallons of water from the public trust.
Now, the outcry of over a million members of a non-profit called The Story of Stuff (SoS) has Brown singing a different tune. When he learned that SoS is planning to take action against Nestlé for its environmental degradation and corporate greed, SoS received the following message from Nestlé’s CEO:
“The feedback and constructive criticism that Nestlé gets from groups like Story of Stuff is important, even when we disagree. In fact, we have used input like this on many occasions globally to adapt our operations… One thing I would appreciate is some perspective on how we might do it better in the eyes of your constituents.”
The corporation finally asked to meet with SoS’s staff, but SoS feels that this is just another act against society, in a long list of Nestlé’s attempt to privatize water all over the world.
Here are the very simple requests that are being made of the mega-corporation:
- Stop bottling water from the San Bernardino National Forest and other protected lands
- Withdraw from all additional sites where communities are protesting the privatization of their water, including Cascade Locks, OR, Kunkletown, PA, Fryeburg, ME, Mt. Shasta, CA, Sacramento, CA, Elora, ON, and Vancouver, BC.
- Pay to clean up the waste generated by its polluting plastic products. Stop pushing the cost of cleanup onto taxpayers.
You can add your request to the following petition to ensure that Nestlé stops taking water from people all over the world, and more immediately from California as it attempts to overcome the conditions of drought.
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| Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga. |
