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NEWS: Nestle Group chairman says Alberta should consider water market

Nestle Group chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

Reuters reports, “Selling water on exchanges in the same way other commodities are traded could help solve a shortage of the world’s most precious raw material…, (Peter Brabeck-Letmathe) the chairman of Nestle Group said (in Geneva) on Tuesday.”

“The first place to consider it should be Alberta province , he said, where competition could be particularly fierce between farmers needing water for crops, and oil companies needing water to exploit oil sands, which require far more water than other kinds of oil deposit.”

Brabeck-Letmathe said, “We are actively dealing with the government of Alberta to think about a water exchange.”

It has been reported that in the 2005 documentary ‘We Feed The World’, Brabeck-Letmathe said that the idea of water as a basic human right was “extreme” and that “water is food and should have a market value”. More on that documentary at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/we-feed-the-world/.

In February, Public Eye reported that, “Nestle Waters Canada – British Columbia’s largest bottled water producer – is opposing a proposal that would allow control over the province’s water supply to be delegated to local or regional agencies, Public Eye has learned. That proposal is one of six being advanced by the government as part of an effort to modernize its 15-year-old Water Act. …In an interview, the company’s corporate affairs director John Challinor explained, ‘If you look at other provinces in Canada and the United States, the state or the province has the responsibility for water management within the province. And we believe that that’s where it should stay. …Mr. Challinor, who has registered to lobby the government about the issue, also said he thinks water access should be given on on a first-come, first-served basis. …Mr. Challinor said he’s already met with Environment Minister Murray Coell, who has asked Nestle Waters Canada to submit their Water Act modernization feedback in writing.” More on that at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6514.