Food and Beverage multinational Nestlé dominates the world water industry with their Pure Life and Poland Springs brands by exploiting water resources both nationally and internationally, negatively affecting local citizens in the company’s determined pursuit of profit. At the World Water Forum held in the Netherlands in March 2000, the major topic on the agenda was whether water is considered a ‘need’ or a ‘right’. The discussion was not directed by various UN or government officials, as you might expect, but rather by some of the world’s largest corporations. One of the biggest players was Nestlé, who insisted on defining water as a ‘need’.
A statement signed by government officials failed to act in the public interest, as corporations were sided with and water was labeled as a ‘need’ rather than a universal ‘right’. Since water was then notably defined as a ‘need’, conglomerates have been able to privatize the life source as a commodity, subjecting it to capitalistic market exchange and the consumer’s buying power. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, 2010 Chairman and former CEO of Nestlé Peter Brabeck-Letmathe famously declared that “ access to water should not be a public right ”, sending teams of tactical hydrogeologists to hunt for […]
Full article: Nestlé: The Global Search For Liquid Gold