Nestlé is taking 265 million liters of fresh BC water every year to bottle and sell off around the world -- and it does not pay a penny.

At a time when water is in short supply around the world, it is outrageous that Nestlé can draw limitless amounts of our natural resources to sell for a huge profit. Nestlé's chairman says that "extremist" NGOs are responsible for the idea that water is a human right, and that water should have a market price -- all while paying nothing to BC.

Nestlé gets away with this due to a lack of proper regulation in the province of BC. With public outcry growing, the government says it’s considering a public consultation on the issue -- but hasn’t committed to any immediate action. Canada promotes itself to the world as a clean, untrammelled wilderness travel destination, and it cares about its reputation. Together, we can push the BC government to stop Nestle's greedy water grab.

Let’s tell the government: enact laws so companies like Nestlé must pay to extract our most precious resource -- our water.

Nestlé draws water from the same aquifer as thousands of residents near Hope - and many of the residents who rely on the water are concerned. “We have water that’s so clean and so pure, it’s amazing. And then they take it and sell it back to us in plastic bottles,” said one resident. This freeloading by Nestlé is even more outrageous at a time when many parts of the world are facing extreme water shortage.

This isn’t the first time members of the SumOfUs.org community have spoken out against Nestlé extracting Canadian water with no consideration other than profit. Earlier this year, more than 140,000 of you spoke out about Nestlé sucking up water from a Canadian watershed during droughts. Thankfully, a provincial tribunal sided with Council of Canadians, Ecojustice, and Wellington Water Watchers and rejects a deal between Nestlé and the Ontario Ministry of Environment that would have removed restrictions on Nestlé’s water withdrawals during times of drought. Now we need to speak out against Nestlé in BC, too.

Call on the BC government to stop allowing Nestlé and other corporate freeloaders from extracting our water for free.

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More information:

Nestle bottles millions of liters of Canadian water — and pays nothing, Canada.com, Aug. 14th, 2013.

Opinion: A new Water Sustainability Act will update, replace existing legislation Vancouver Sun, Sept. 9th, 2013.