Front Page @Instagram @Facebook @Twitter Custom Site Search



Photo Credit: Stefania Galluccio @mystoo
403 - 2/1/2019 9:36:16 AM  

Collectif Eau 88 - Feb 12

Wellington Water Watchers Sends 2 Board Members to Vittel France to Participate in a Community Forum on Nestlé Water Bottling

For Immediate Release - January 31, 2019 

Susan Glasauer and Karen Rathwell, members of the Board of Directors of Wellington Water Watchers are going to Vittel France. They have been invited by Collectif Eau 88 
to participate in a community forum on Nestlé water bottling on February 12. Dr. Susan Glasauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Land Resource Science, 
University of Guelph. Karen Rathwell is a long-time resident of Guelph and water protection activist.

Collectif Eau 88 has invited Wellington Water Watchers to share the experience of Nestlé water extraction in Ontario in order to illustrate how Nestlé’s behaviour in Vittel 
France is part of a global pattern of water exploitation and privatization by Nestlé. 

Mike Balkwill, Campaign Director with WWW recently spoke with Bernhard Schmitt of  Collectif Eau 88 via Skype and learned the following: 

• Nestlé has extracted 800K cubic metres of water/year in Vittel France since 1990.

• All of the water bottled by Nestlé in Vittel is exported to Germany and other countries

• Nestlé pays no taxes to the French government because the water is an export product.

• Nestlé acquires the water for free and sells 1.5 litre bottles in Germany for 1 Euro

• Local residents pay 3 Euros for each cubic meter of water they use Nestlé has been extracting water for bottling in Vittel since 1990, reducing the aquifer 
by 30cm/year. Experts agree that there is a risk of salinization of the groundwater from 
excessive extraction by the year 2040. 

The French government is proposing to address the impending drinking water shortage by building a pipeline from another town for residents of Vittel. The effect of transferring this water by pipeline will be to deplete the surface waters in the area of the neighbouring town. Experts predict that wetlands in neighbouring towns will dry up and water levels in local rivers will drop. 

Nestlé will continue to extract and bottle Vittel water for export. Nestlé was granted a thirty-year permit in 1990 which may be up for review in 2020. 

The French government has organized a series of public consultations on the pipeline.
The public meeting Collectif Eau 88 has organized for February 12 is intended to connect the dots between Nestlé’s water taking in countries around the world. Susan Glasauer and Karen Rathwell of Wellington Water Watchers will share with the people of Vittel how Nestlé also extracts water in Ontario essentially for free. (The $503.71 per million litres that Nestlé pays the Ontario government is an administrative fee for the permit to take water process. This fee amounts to 1/40th of a cent per 500 ml bottle).

It is also a fact-finding mission for WWW. A public meeting will be organized in Guelph in March to report back on what Susan and Karen learn by meeting with local people in Vittel.

— 30 —

About Wellington Water Watchers 



Founded in 2007, Wellington Water Watchers (WWW) is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization based in Guelph, Ontario, with a focus on the Grand River watershed. WWW is committed to the protection, restoration and conservation of groundwater. WWW works to affect local water policy and protect water sources. WWW also sponsors and supports guest speakers, debates, and are actively encouraging bottled-water free community events.

Send Us Your Press Release!

We welcome all Guelph and Area Press Releases | Details |
       

Front Page | About | Privacy Policy | Social Media | Join | Contact