This afternoon, Nestlé Canada Inc. announced it will leave the Canadian bottled water market and sell its bottled water brand, Nestlé Pure Life, to Ice River Springs. This is a significant win for communities across Canada, and everyone who has been fighting the bottled water giant.
“Community groups, First Nations, residents across the country and Council of Canadian supporters have persistently challenged Nestlé’s water takings in Wellington County, Ontario and Hope, British Columbia. This is their victory against the multi-national giant,” says Vi Bui, water campaigner with the Council of Canadians.
Nestlé has been making profit by pumping groundwater all over the world. Over the years, Nestlé has taken billions of litres of pure, clean and vital water from underground aquifers in Canada and sold them for huge profit. Meanwhile, communities are struggling with severe droughts, dwindling water supply for community uses, and plastic bottles clogging up our landfills and waterways.
The Council of Canadians’ supporters and chapters joined with community groups on the ground to mobilize opposition and deny Nestlé’s many attempts to expand its operations, push for a moratorium on water taking permits, and boycott Nestlé products. Today’s announcement follows a decline in the volume of water Nestlé extracts and bottles, thanks to the groundswell of community opposition, public education and our national Boycott Nestlé campaign.
We know that Nestlé’s departure will not end water takings in Canada, and our work continues to oppose any commodification of water for profit, whether by a multi-national corporation or a Canadian-owned one.
Today, we want to say thank you to all our chapters, members, donors and supporters across the country. Your collective activism makes people-powered progress like this possible. Tomorrow, we will continue to build on that grassroots power to keep water protected as a shared commons for current and future generations.
Put people, the planet, and our democracy over corporate power.
Help support our continuing work to protect our water from privatization and profiteering. Become a member or chip-in to support our grassroots organizing, hard-hitting analysis and supporter driven advocacy.
