Can science predict the consequences of predatory capitalism
Don’t need science…
800 million litres a year. That’s the amount of groundwater that Nestlé pumps out of Vittel, France, to bottle and sell for a huge markup.
But instead of asking Nestlé to stop, the government is making the local community pay the price. Their solution? Build a pipeline 20 kilometers long to supply the 30,000 inhabitants of Vittel with fresh water – at taxpayers’ expense, of course.
The people of Vittel and our local partners at Collectif Eau 88 aren’t giving up without a fight. That’s why they’ve personally asked us to help them stand up to this corporate juggernaut. Will you support their community in the face of Nestle’s greed?
Tell Nestle to keep its hands off of Vittel’s water supply!
For centuries, Vittel has been famous for its pure mineral springs. But Nestle is draining that water at a faster rate than it can possibly regenerate - e nough to fill 280 Olympic-sized swimming pools!
Faced with this environmental disaster, Vittel’s officials plan to build a pipeline to bring citizens water from the village of Lerrain. It would cost €50 million, funded mostly out of the town’s own pocket. In essence, they’ll be paying to let Nestle keep draining them dry.
There are darker forces at work here. Claudie Pruvost, the president of Vittel’s local water commission, has been under investigation for corruption – and she just so happens to be the wife of Bernard Pruvost, former CEO of Nestle International.
This farmer and some friends entered a field near Vittel, owned by Nestlé and dug a hole and found illegal plastic waste. They put it back and covered the hole. You’d hardly know they’d been there. But they publicised it (there are apparently several other illegal dump sites owned by Nestlé nearby) and so now Nestlé is suing him for trespass.
ETA
And I remember about 20 years ago a Sunday Times colour supplement cover about water migration predicting waves of migration from Africa to Europe as Africa ran out of water.
We do now have waves of migrants from Africa in Europe but mostly due to war, despotism and so on, but there’s still a lot of drought and famine there. Meantime, the right to use a hose-pipe in the West is seen as a birthright. We suck, basically.
