We have No Water to Waste
Recently, a giant American corporation, Blue Triton, was granted permission to extract and bottle billions of litres of groundwater from Ontario.
Blue Triton, formerly Nestlé, would have enough groundwater to fill as many as 14 billion plastic bottles. Laid end to end, those bottles would stretch 5.6 million kilometres – enough to circle the globe 70 times.
This is unacceptable. Water is a human right – not a commodity to be bought and sold.
It’s time to stop Big Water from wasting our precious resources for profit.
The Lowdown on Big Water
Billion-dollar hedge funds, multinational corporations, and armies of paid lobbyists want to own our water and the infrastructure that provides it — so they can sell it back to us for a profit.
After heavy industry lobbying, the federal government exempted plastic bottles from its plans to phase out single-use plastics last year.
Water-bottling companies are buying up water rights from provincial governments and Big Water has been making secretive deals with under-funded communities across the country to buy control of Canadians’ tap water.
High-stakes lobbying is ramping up to ensure the new Canada Water Agency lacks the regulatory and enforcement powers that would protect water over industry profits.
Water in the hands of private companies is a threat to the human right to clean drinkable water.
The most powerful protection from Big Water is an informed and organized network of Public Water Champions.
Become A Public Water Champion
The Council of Canadians is ramping up our campaign against Big Water, and we need your support again.
Take the pledge today never to use commercial bottled water. Become a Public Water Champion by boycotting all bottled water.
Big Victories against Big Water
Blue Triton had demanded 10-year permits but was only issued a 5-year permit, after the public flooded the Ontario Ministry of Environment with letters of opposition.
In 2016, mounting public pressure forced Ontario to declare a moratorium on new permits for bottling groundwater. Five years later they enacted stronger regulations and gave municipalities the power to veto proposed permits within their boundaries.
We welcomed 7 new Blue Communities in the past year for a total of 85 worldwide. Blue Communities support the human right to water, reject bottled water and keep water systems public. The program also provides a starting point for activists to work together locally, building relationships and community power.
Last year, along with CUPE, we helped persuade the Township of Mapleton, Ontario, to reject a costly P3 financing scheme that would have paved the way for increased privatization of municipal water infrastructure across Canada.
