Nestlé: Malevolent Corporation Capitalizes on Global
Water Crisis
by Maude Barlow
Published on Wednesday, September 26, 2012 by Council of Canadians
I have just
returned from a week in Switzerland to promote the right to water and to
challenge the giant Swiss bottled water giant Nestlé. My visit was arranged by
Franklin Frederick, an activist and leader in the global fight against Nestlé
Waters, who is originally from Brazil, but now lives and works in Switzerland.
Franklin is an extraordinary man. He is fiercely committed to global water
justice and has been a thorn in the side of the water privateers for years. I
also reconnected with Rosmarie Bar, a former Green Member of the Swiss
Parliament and former senior member of the Swiss development network, Alliance
Sud. Rosmarie and I worked together to form an international group called
Friends of the Right to Water and worked for many years to lay the groundwork
for the recognition of this right at the UN.
Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. (Flickr/Nestle)
I spoke at the
universities of Bern and Lucerne and in a beautiful 500 year-old church located
in the heart of Bern. In the magnificent wood paneled Swiss Parliament, I also
met with a delegation of MPs from every party who are committed to protecting public
water and the human right to water. In all these venues, I met wonderful,
committed people working for economic and social justice.
However, it is
very clear that Nestlé is a powerful presence in Switzerland and its influence
in the halls of power goes deep. Everyone I talked to said so in one way or
another. Switzerland has no law limiting political donations from corporations,
or requiring transparency in campaign financing. Given that the marketing
department of Nestlé has a larger annual budget than the World Health
Organization, it is widely understood that the company has great political
influence.
Of special
concern is the partnership that the Swiss Federal Agency for Development and
Cooperation - SDC - has entered into with the company. Nestlé is a charter
member of the newly formed Swiss Water Partnership, along with civil society
groups and aid agencies, that will advise the Swiss government on water policy
in the Global South. The stated desire is to come to a set of “shared values”
so that governments, NGOs and the private sector are promoting common policies
and world views when giving aid money for water development, or what the SDC
calls “speaking with one voice.” But what is this voice?
Nestlé was one
of the first companies to commodify water. In the wake of the Chernobyl
disaster, seeing what it did to the groundwater supplies of the surrounding
regions, the company bought up huge quantities of mineral water deposits in
Switzerland. Nestlé is the biggest
bottled water company in the world and is scouring countries all over the
planet for new supplies of water.
Nestlé has
consistently promoted public-private
partnerships whereby private water companies run water services on a for
profit basis. Company head Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, referred to often in the
Swiss media as the “Water Man,” repeatedly promotes the full commodification of
water (although after much criticism, now admits that the poor need some water
too.) He has proposed setting aside 1.5 per cent of the planet’s water for
human rights, the rest going into the market. Nestlé also promotes GMO crops,
which are voracious users of pesticides.
So these
policies are the ones that the company will promote to the Swiss government in
its development work. It is a travesty that this is the water face to the world
of Switzerland. The country has one of the finest public water systems
anywhere. SDC defends this partnership and publicly states that a key goal is
to promote the interests of Swiss water companies abroad.
But what does
Nestlé know about delivering water and sanitation services? Nothing! It is
involved with this partnership to gain credibility and to have the Swiss
government open doors to new private water markets in the developing world. It
is the same reason the company is deeply involved with the funding arm of the
World Bank. In fact, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe chairs a new advisory board called
the 2030 Water Resources Group that helps set policy models and priorities for
water and sanitation programs around the world.
This is a
disaster in a world where demand for water is outstripping supply at an
accelerating rate. As Wenonah Hauter from Food and Water Watch says, Nestlé’s
goal is to shift government policy away from providing public municipal water
supplies to people, and toward a dependency on bottled water to provide basic
drinking water. And of course, it is about capitalizing on the global water
crisis.
It is time to
call out Nestlé and the governments that partner with them. I will return to
Nestlé’s home base again soon where we will shout out against this malevolent
water hunter.
© 2012 Council
of Canadians
Maude Barlow
chairs the board of Food and Water
Watch and is the senior adviser on water to the president of the U.N.
General Assembly. Her new book is "Blue Covenant, The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle
For the Right to Water" (McClelland & Stewart, 2007).
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