Sunday 10 November 2013

Death Through Bottled Water.


     We all know that the corporate world is a destructive force that rides roughshod over the well being of the ordinary people, all in the name of profit and power. However like all bastards, some are worse than others and Nestles comes in among the bottom of the barrel. We can certainly target the worst offenders in this brutal war for profit, but until we rid the world of this system of capitalism, that breeds, feeds and proliferates, this festering cancer of corporatism, we, the ordinary people, will be on the receiving end of its greed driven destructive force.
This appeal from SumOfUs:

   Nestlé is draining developing countries’ groundwater to make its Pure Life bottled water, destroying countries’ natural resources before forcing its people to buy their own water back.
    Now Nestlé is moving into Pakistan and sucking up the local water supply, rendering entire areas uninhabitable in order to sell mineral-enriched water to the upper class as well as people in the US and EU. Meanwhile the poor watch their wells run dry and their children fall ill from dirty water.
Tell Nestlé to stop making Pakistan's villages uninhabitable by stealing their water.
   Nestlé’s aggressive water grab is already descending like a plague on parts of Pakistan. In the small village of Bhati Dilwan, villagers have watched their water table sink hundreds of feet since Nestlé moved in. Children are getting sick from the foul-smelling sludge they’re forced to choke down. Meanwhile, Nestlé spends millions marketing “Pure Life” to wealthy Americans, Europeans, and Pakistanis who can afford to watch their kids grow up healthy. This scenario is played out again and again in countries around the globe. But this is where we say: enough!
      Dirty water kills more children around the world than AIDS, malaria, war, and traffic accidents combined -- and Nestlé has a big hand in it.
     At the World Water Forum in 2000, Nestlé led the way in fighting against defining access to water a universal right. Nestlé and other big corporations won out, and government officials around the globe officially downgraded water’s classification to a “need” instead, meaning it could be captured, commoditized, and exploited by major corporations without regard for local populations.
Tell Nestlé: Water is a human right. Stop stealing it from communities around the world.
     When the company's Canadian subsidiary pushed to keep draining millions of liters of fresh water from the water table in a time of drought, we joined our friends at the Council of Canadians, Wellington Water Watchers, and Ecojustice challenging Nestlé in court -- and we won! Just this month, after additional pressure from thousands of SumOfUs members, Nestlé decided to drop its appeal -- a huge win for the public.
     If we expose Nestlé’s disgusting game plan for Pakistan, the company will scale back its water-draining facilities to avoid a damaging global backlash. But if we ignore what’s happening there, Nestlé and other major corporations will suck up more and more the world’s water -- and that’s not good news for anyone.
Thanks for all that you do,
Claiborne and the rest of us
     P.S. Nestlé’s current chairman and former CEO was caught on tape arguing that water is "not a right”, and while the clip is shocking, the reality is even worse. Nestlé’s aggressive policies are depriving thousands of people around the planet of the basic water they need to survive, all to pump up the company’s bottom line. Please get word out about Nestlé's horrific practices by sharing this campaign on Facebook.

More Information:

The Global Search For Liquid Gold, Urban Times, 11 June 2013
Bottled Life: The Story, Bottled Life, 1 January 2012
Water Facts, Food and Water Watch
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

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