Nestlé just won its legal challenge to take water from Osceola Township, a tiny community in Michigan. But the township of 2,000 is appealing the decision and is not backing down from their brave fight.
The community is just up the road from Flint, Michigan where residents still don’t have access to clean water after one of the most notorious water crises of the century. If Nestle gets its way it will be able to pump 400 gallons (1,500 litres) of water a minute.
Knowing the risks of mass water extraction the township voted against allowing Nestlé to set up a pumping station. But instead of respecting the township’s wishes, Nestlé sued them to force them to let Nestlé take their precious water.
Nestlé is still counting on Osceola township’s small size to allow it to quietly bully and get its way. But what Nestlé isn’t counting on is the power of people like you to amplify the issue around the world and force it drop its plans.
This isn’t the first time SumOfUs members like you have taken action to protect water. For years we’ve worked consistently to protect water from Nestlé’s greed. Over 375,000 of you called on Michigan to not let Nestlé walk away with 210 million gallons of water for a mere $200. Not only that, but you flooded Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality with more than 26,000 comments asking it to reject Nestlé’s proposal.
SumOfUs members like you chipped in thousands of dollars to Osceola Township to protect its water from Nestlé's greedy extraction.
We know we have the power to stop Nestlé from stealing water. We won against Nestlé in Oregon and time and time again fought the water giant in Canada. And in the last 18 months, we had two major victories preventing major water extraction in New Zealand from water company NZ Pure Blue. We know that we can do it again in Michigan but we need your help.
More information
mlive. 9 October 2017.
Cadillac News. 10 October 2017.
Wood TV NBC. 5 November 2017.