Winning the water fight: Netizens vs. Nestlé

Winning the water fight: Netizens vs. Nestlé

By Ysh Cabana

TORONTO–“Where has our water gone?”

While the Ontario government is considering a two-year freeze on new bottling facilities, some people are already hoping that companies can’t suck more of the province’s water to sell for profit.

In early October, Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledged that some of the conditions for water-taking permits are outdated, and she supported a comprehensive Ontario water strategy. Then on Oct. 17, the province announced a proposed two-year moratorium. This will apply to every water bottling facility, including Nestlé Waters’ Canada, that takes groundwater and is required to have a permit under the Ontario Water Resources Act.

The government is planning to impose stricter scientific requirements including studies on the cumulative impact of the practice on local supplies, and data on the actual amount taken every week.

Many Ontarians took to social media to further put pressure on the government.

According to a petition in advocacy website Change.org, “millions of liters a day are being drained from our natural springs, and lakes by corporate companies looking for the money to ‘flow in.’”

“We are complacent. We bask in the idea that Canada holds 20% of the world’s fresh water—water crises face other countries, but not ours. We could not be more wrong,” it said.

The petitioners also cited Maude Barlow, author of the book “Boiling Point” which “lays bare the issues facing Canada’s water reserves, including long-outdated water laws, unmapped and unprotected groundwater reserves, agricultural pollution, industrial-waste dumping, boil-water advisories, and the effects of deforestation and climate change.” It added: “This will be the defining issue of the coming decade, and most of us have no idea that it is on our very own doorstep.”

Most immediately, Ontario residents are expected to submit comments at www.ebr.gov.on.ca about the proposed two-year moratorium on new or expanded water takings from groundwater by bottle companies.

The moratorium proposal on the EBR was posted on Oct. 15. The deadline for public input is on Dec. 1, 2016.

“The moratorium will provide much needed time for research, consultation and for municipalities and regions to catch up to the new water reality and the effects of climate change on ground water supplies in local planning,” says Jan Beveridge, of SaveOurWater.ca.

Controversy over Ontario’s water bottling regulations boiled over when Nestlé Waters Canada outbid the Township of Centre Wellington for ownership of a well near Elora, a town within Centre Wellington. The township wanted the well to preserve its access to clean drinking water. The province currently charges CAD$3.71 for every million litres of water, along with a permit fee of up to CAD$3,000 depending on the risk of environmental impact.
The changes could mean Nestlé would not get a permit for its Centre Wellington site, but it could apply to  renew permits for its other existing wells. It currently operates a bottling plant in nearby Erin and Aberfoyle, where it can take a total of up to 4.7 million litres a day to bottle.
“We are ground zero where a multinational corporation is taking advantage of local, provincial and federal inaction and laws and regulations and policies that have not kept up with the global reality of climate change and possible water scarcity locally and internationally,”  the group SaveOurWater said.
“We can beat Nestlé at its game.”