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Bottled Life: Nestlé's Business with Water (2012) is a thought-provoking documentary that investigates the global bottled water industry and its impact on communities and natural resources. Focusing on Nestlé, the film explores how water has become a major business, raising questions about sustainability, ethics, and access to essential resources. A powerful documentary that encourages viewers to reflect on corporate responsibility and the future of clean water worldwide.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00:00You
00:01:00We boost our EBIT margin from 9.8% to 14% of sales.
00:01:24We eliminated more than 10% of all stock-keeping units.
00:01:319 billion Swiss francs, or almost 9 billion dollars.
00:01:37From 6.2 billion Swiss francs to 15 billion Swiss francs, an average gross of 10% per year.
00:01:46Food and beverage amounts and surpasses also the 100 billion water.
00:01:52Our internal volume growth amounts to 3.7% on average.
00:02:00With 3%, this has reached a level amongst the highest attained in my 12 years as chief executive.
00:02:06Lake Geneva.
00:02:18It's into this lake that meltwater flows from the mountains of Switzerland.
00:02:24Located on the shoreline is the headquarters of a company which deals in water.
00:02:29It's the headquarters of Nestle, the most powerful food and beverage company in the world.
00:02:36Without water, there is no sustainability for our company and for our shareholders.
00:02:54This has to be our chief priority.
00:02:58The continued availability of water is key to our continued ability to grow or to serve the consumers' needs all over the world.
00:03:06At Nestle, we believe that to have a long-term business success, you must simultaneously create value for the shareholders and for the public.
00:03:18And we call this creating shared value and it is a fundamental principle behind the way we conduct business at Nestle.
00:03:26Our corporate social responsibility report is as thick as our financial report.
00:03:34So I think it's a good balance again which is reflective.
00:03:37When it comes to water, Peter Brabek is a global ambassador.
00:03:44He travels the world preaching cautious and careful use of this most precious commodity.
00:03:50He's a captain of big business, committed to making money, but also a man who speaks of social responsibility.
00:03:56So I want to know more about that.
00:03:57My first destination is the east of Ethiopia, where Nestle is helping the United Nations to provide a UN refugee camp with drinking water.
00:04:10It's one of the humanitarian projects which the company finances as part of its corporate social responsibility program.
00:04:17It's the lack of drinking water, the global water problem, which is also of paramount priority for the UN.
00:04:32The water crisis is perhaps the most urgent ecological and human threat of our time.
00:04:38And more children die every year in our world of water than HIV-AIDS, traffic accidents, and war combined.
00:04:47In their recent World Water Development Report, 24 agencies of the United Nations confirmed that the global water crisis is getting worse and threatening millions of people every day.
00:04:59We can benefit the people of Ethiopia in a way that is impossible for either the United Nations or Nestle to do it by itself.
00:05:11Clean drinking water is a life-or-death issue.
00:05:14By combining the know-how of our Nestle Water Company geologists with the field expertise of UNHCR,
00:05:25they are able to ensure access to pure water for tens of thousands of people.
00:05:31This is true not only for today, but for many years to come.
00:05:35This is the camp to which Peter Brabeck is referring in his Nestle video.
00:05:46It's home to some 20,000 refugees from neighboring war-torn Somalia.
00:05:51Many of them have been here for more than 20 years, waiting for the killing in their country to stop.
00:06:05Many of them have been here for more than 20 years, waiting for the killing in their country to stop.
00:06:35Many of them have been here for more than 30 years and at least the killing of the Kappa and the Mali is where the child is visiting the island.
00:06:51Many of them have been here for blood-tornos.
00:06:54Men, pregnant women, never served in her family, never served in her family, never served in her house.
00:06:58Many of them have been here for a long time for the killings of the dead people.
00:07:03the Khishab Corse of the Japanese.
00:07:06It's my uncle's uncle,
00:07:08my uncle is was on my side.
00:07:09My uncle heard me,
00:07:11my uncle would be proud of it.
00:07:13My uncle had made me say one,
00:07:15I don't know what he was saying.
00:07:17My uncle and my uncle is so good.
00:07:19She is from my uncle.
00:07:21She is with me.
00:07:23She is from my uncle.
00:07:24She was not going to be there.
00:07:26She is doing it.
00:07:28She then she was old for her.
00:07:30I've been expecting something of a showcase project, but instead refugees tell me there's
00:07:52a shortage of water.
00:07:54The camp is supplied by an underground water pipeline, the water being pumped from the
00:07:58valley some 20 kilometers away.
00:08:06Nestle co-financed the water supply system, and according to Peter Grabeck, is committed
00:08:10to its long-term operation.
00:08:13The groundwater is high in iron content and requires special treatment.
00:08:27This is the water pipe which leads up to the Kebribea refugee camp.
00:08:33Because of the strong corrosion, the water pumps down in the valley are often out of operation,
00:08:38and when that happens, 20,000 people at the other end of the pipe are left without water.
00:08:46This is a station where we keep three surface pumps to pump water from here to the booster
00:08:56station.
00:08:58We are, in the last three or four years, we have a lot of work to maintain this because
00:09:06after time, the pumps get older and they have to replace.
00:09:12And this system is now running partially as a result of the funding we got from St.
00:09:19Lazare.
00:09:20This means that Nestle is no longer supporting this system.
00:09:24No, not now.
00:09:27These new pumps are changed in 2007 and then 2008.
00:09:34Until 2004, they supported and since then, they are not anymore following up this project.
00:09:43We have to continue to ensure the provision of water to our people.
00:10:00And we have refugees in Kebribea, we have refugees in Obari, in the Shedder.
00:10:07About 35,000 refugees alone are depending on the provision of UNHCR, UNHCR support.
00:10:16So we really need supporters of organisations, donors.
00:10:22Nestle's commitment to the camp is finished, but according to the company website, it's
00:10:27still continuing.
00:10:28Closer to reality than ever before.
00:10:32Our aim is to make sure that the water system can keep functioning
00:10:37over the long term, so that the people of the region and their children will have access
00:10:44to clean water for many years into the future.
00:10:49Nestle has not been here since 2005, end of 2005.
00:10:58Is Brobeck intentionally playing up Nestle's commitment, or is the company's PR perhaps
00:11:03getting just a little too enthusiastic.
00:11:08The water companies are in this for one reason, and that is profit.
00:11:12And sometimes they connect up to a project like this for their marketing tools because
00:11:16we all over the world are criticising them and they are trying to renew their image in
00:11:21the world.
00:11:22They don't stick with something unless it's profitable.
00:11:25They are a big, transnational, competitive corporation.
00:11:28They will never stay with something for humanitarian reasons.
00:11:32They don't get into it for humanitarian reasons, and they won't stay with it for humanitarian reasons.
00:11:36Maud Barlow from Canada is an ambassador for water, just like Peter Brobeck.
00:11:48Except that she's a consumer activist, a winner of the alternative Nobel Prize, and a strong
00:11:55critic of Nestle.
00:11:57Nestle and water.
00:12:12We've asked the company for an interview, and we're still waiting for a reply.
00:12:16For the time being, we can film only these pictures on the fringes of a media event.
00:12:23Nestle is one of the most profitable companies ever.
00:12:26Its annual turnover exceeds 100 billion dollars.
00:12:29It's the world's largest food and beverage multinational, adored by investors, big and small.
00:12:36More than a quarter of a million staff.
00:12:42And the chairman of the board is a man with a mission.
00:12:44Water has been important for Nestle ever since Ari Nestle founded the company nearly 150 years ago.
00:12:49He was producing mineral water as early as the 19th century.
00:12:53He lived high above Lake Geneva, privately acquiring local water rights.
00:12:56He was producing mineral water as early as the 19th century.
00:13:00He lived high above Lake Geneva, privately acquiring local water rights so that he could provide his home and garden with fresh water.
00:13:15To the village, he donated this fountain with its excess of residual water from his home.
00:13:36When it comes to bottled water, Nestle is the undisputed world leader.
00:13:51The company has bought up many of its competitors and now owns more than 70 different brands.
00:13:57Annual turnover totals more than 9 billion dollars.
00:14:02With the takeover of Perrier in 1992, brands such as Poland Spring joined the product portfolio,
00:14:09ensuring access to the lucrative beverage market in the USA.
00:14:14We also look, of course, which is also very important, which is what is the image of our company.
00:14:21So we are checking all over the world, constantly, what are people thinking about Nestle's compliance,
00:14:27about Nestle's responsibility as a corporate citizen.
00:14:31In Bern, Switzerland, I have an appointment with a senior Nestle manager.
00:14:42He chose the restaurant.
00:14:46Will Nestle give us information about its water business and an interview with Peter Brubbeck?
00:14:53The answer is no.
00:14:56According to the Nestle man, it would be the wrong film at the wrong time.
00:15:01And he offers to commission from us a film about the global use of water in agriculture.
00:15:07Above and beyond that, the doors to Nestle will be closed to us worldwide.
00:15:12That means no cooperation from Nestle.
00:15:19From now on we can film Peter Brubbeck only when he makes public appearances.
00:15:23But that doesn't deter us, so we travel to the country where the company sells most of its water.
00:15:29A spring water pumping station in the northeast of the USA.
00:15:53For its Poland spring brand, Nestle pumps out a million litres of water here every day.
00:16:06A tanker can hold 30,000 litres of water for which Nestle pays a private landowner just $10.
00:16:20In Freiburg, the heavy traffic poses a problem.
00:16:23The water tankers carry out 25,000 trips a year.
00:16:27They travel to Nestle's bottling plant, located about an hour from the village.
00:16:32An aquifer in Freiburg that supplies about a sixth of the water for Poland spring bottling was the focus of attention today.
00:16:38Some of the town's residents say Poland spring is polluting a local pond and ruining their quality of life.
00:16:44So today, dozens of people made a splash to highlight their concern.
00:16:48News center's Kristin Cullen has the story.
00:16:53Howard Dearborn wants Poland spring out of Freiburg.
00:16:56If you're taking millions of gallons of water out of one place, there has to be an effect somewhere.
00:17:03That's why he's invited Freiburg residents to dump bottles of Poland spring water into the pond outside his home, back where it came from.
00:17:11But Mark Dubois with Poland spring says these claims are false and denies that the company's business in Freiburg is polluting the pond.
00:17:18No one's been able to suggest that any fact that there's a relationship between our withdrawals and the suggestions that Mr. Dearborn's making.
00:17:27They don't belong here. They don't have a right to be here. And even if the law allows, they don't have a right to come here and take the water.
00:17:35I think it is a soap opera in that it has many aspects of good fiction.
00:17:42It has families, it has money, it has politics, it has a lot of intrigue, a lot of secret meetings, a lot of public misconception and misperception and misinformation.
00:17:59And a lot of court action and small town political infighting and disagreement.
00:18:14In Freiburg, Nestle wants to build a second pumping station. It wants to pump double the quantity of water.
00:18:21But after some consideration, the local authorities are refusing the company permission. As a result, Nestle is now suing the town.
00:18:31This truck access from Denmark and that water source is something that is crucial to their growth here.
00:18:41It's crucial to the supply of water to their other plants, I assume.
00:18:48It raises the question even more loudly, who does the water belong to?
00:18:54And if I have a house next to your house and I pump out of my land, where is the line where what I pump out from under my land is coming out from under yours?
00:19:06The situation right now is that the public has said no, the planning board said no, the appeals board has said no, and Nestle is suing.
00:19:15The appeal was filed, I believe, last week or the week before, suing the inhabitants of the town of Freiburg.
00:19:22Nestle needs new sources of water.
00:19:35Here in the state of Maine, a whole team of hydrogeologists is searching for water.
00:19:43for new springs for the company.
00:19:57Nestle either acquires water rights privately or purchases whole areas outright, which is what happened in the Freiburg region.
00:20:12In the state of Maine, you can take as much water as you want.
00:20:21It was a law that was put into place for people who were running farms and needed to have water in order to sustain themselves, in order to make a piece of land work.
00:20:31The playing field that they operate on is one of laws that exists and litigation, lawsuits and regulations.
00:20:42So they are very, very astute in dealing with changing regulations or working within regulations to meet the demands and the goals that they have.
00:20:57So Howard is trying to do whatever he can. I'm helping him out to try to raise awareness to this issue.
00:21:03And the bigger issue is whose water is it?
00:21:06Poland Springs or Nestle's would like to sew up the entire area up here and get all this mountain water and sell it all over the world for money.
00:21:18Regardless of what it does to the ecology. Of course. Money rules.
00:21:27If there was no resistance to them coming to town, there would be no office with a good neighbor policy giving away free coffee.
00:21:36The funny part is they give away free water. They were giving away a case of free water to the first 50 people every month that come in there.
00:21:44And for me, it's extremely ludicrous because that water is the water that we get when we turn our sink on.
00:21:53They put it in a plastic bottle after they pump it into a truck. They bring it and put labels on it and bring it back to Freiburg and give it away as a free gift to the people who can turn their sink on.
00:22:04For me, it's a travesty. It's a joke.
00:22:07It's a joke.
00:22:08They use it up there to wash their hands in it and flush their toilets with the same water that Nestle's is selling as spring water.
00:22:21Think about that.
00:22:24Think about that.
00:22:41In Maine, opposition is growing. Many people are angry that Nestle is making big money out of their water. I meet up again with Maud Barlow.
00:22:52Nestle is a water hunter. They're a predator. They're not interested in the sustainable use of groundwater or the rivers and the springs that they use.
00:23:03They're out for one thing, and that is to make money. And so they come into an area and they see the water like water mining, like a gold company.
00:23:11They come in, they drain an aquifer until it's gone, and when it's gone, they move on. They don't live there, very seldom.
00:23:18They don't have any connection to the place. They're after profit. They're predators, water hunters looking for the last pure water in the world.
00:23:27In the small town of Poland stands a kind of fairytale castle. It's a bottling plant dating from the year 1907.
00:23:54The original spring now has little water. Rumour has it, the spring ran dry a long time ago.
00:24:09But the name has remained. Today, Poland Spring is the top selling spring water in the USA. For Nestle, a sparkling success in terms of turnover.
00:24:23Today, in the state of Maine, there are three new plants bottling Poland spring water. The newest is this one, built by Nestle in Kingfield, 120 kilometers from the original spring.
00:24:36We want to pay a visit. The local media spokesperson said that all she had to do was inform head office.
00:24:51Hello. Hello, my name is Rayse from Docklab. We want to visit the factory.
00:25:06Do you have an appointment? Or are you here to see somebody in particular?
00:25:10Uh, yeah, uh, Elizabeth Swain told us to come to Kingfield.
00:25:15Elizabeth Swain?
00:25:17Yeah.
00:25:18Could you wait a minute, please?
00:25:20The barrier stays down, just like the Nestle man told us back in the Swiss restaurant.
00:25:35In Kingfield, the water is clean and pure, and there's plenty of it. The village is located off the beaten track in the sparsely populated north of Maine.
00:25:52The town's regulatory ordinance allows Nestle to pump 750 million liters of water every year.
00:26:00This village has welcomed the new factory.
00:26:03Kingfield has a population of 1,000. Many hope that Nestle's presence will mean an economic upswing for the village.
00:26:15I think it's been very positive. Our community has lost a lot of jobs over the years, and Poland Spring has come to town.
00:26:26Right now, they're probably, you know, employing 40, 50, 60 people. I'm not sure the exact numbers. I think it's going to expand. And, uh, they've been a good neighbor. Um, they pay taxes. They support the schools. They support the, excuse me, the fire department, uh, the recreation programs. Um, it's a very positive experience, you know, that we've had with Poland Spring.
00:26:54The first select man, John Dill, supported the Nestle project right from the start.
00:27:00In the town hall, local clubs and societies requiring financial support can fill in these Poland Spring donation request forms.
00:27:09I love having them in town. They've been good neighbors. They've given us some economic stability. They've paid a fair amount of taxes. They've helped other area towns. They've helped the, all the schools and all five schools in our school district.
00:27:24They contribute to, uh, local and, uh, civic, civic organizations. We had an old 25-year-old playground that was unsafe with the kids, and they were, uh, large contributors to that. So we now have a modern playground for the local kids to play with.
00:27:39How much does Poland Spring pay for the water?
00:27:42The water's free, because the people who own the land, state law says, you, you own the land, you own what's underneath the land. So the town didn't own the land, so we couldn't, we couldn't lease the water.
00:27:53All we can do is, is, uh, levy property taxes. They are part of the town. They've done everything we've asked them to do, and more. They have always been good neighbors.
00:28:05My next destination is a wildlife preserve some 200 kilometers south of Kingfield.
00:28:14Here, too, the hydrogeologists have been successful in their search.
00:28:19But a small group of women are against Nestle.
00:28:34The reason I'm fighting for water preservation is we have a very large water aquifer here that we care very much about what happens to it.
00:28:59Uh, Nestle moved their way into it over three years ago without us knowing about it.
00:29:05We noticed wells were in place on this land, and that's why we began the fight to, um, maintain control of this.
00:29:15The motto for Maine is the way life should be, and life should not include corporate trucks going back and forth.
00:29:22It is nature at its best. That's what Maine is known for, and I'd like to see that we keep it that way.
00:29:30My passion is, um, we're in a battle of our life with Nestle, and we're trying to not have Nestle come into our town.
00:29:38I find that water is a necessity. It is not a commodity.
00:29:44So I've joined with, um, some friends and neighbors in the town here, and we were actually, um, trying to stop, uh, Nestle from coming in and extracting water from this area in a large scale.
00:29:58You agree? Yeah.
00:30:20The state department of inland fisheries and game had allowed them to put monitoring test wells in.
00:30:35There are approximately 18 of them in the ground.
00:30:40I have learned through the representative, he told them, just go up north and buy a lake.
00:30:46They don't want you here. But they said they want this because, um, it is so pure and it won't cost them much.
00:30:55So Nestle decided to put wells in the ground. They go down a certain number of feet, and they let them monitor the water levels in this area of the land preserve.
00:31:10They have not requested a permit to extract. They're only testing our area.
00:31:17Well, here we are. We're still, this is three years we've been tested.
00:31:23In order to exploit commercially the massive reserves of water, Nestle is trying to find private land in the towns of Shapley and Newfield.
00:31:32From there it wants to pump water from the wildlife preserve and at the lowest possible price.
00:31:39In the towns around the preserve, Nestle has now become a political issue.
00:31:43As a Freiberg, we cannot fight that company on any level playing field.
00:31:57They didn't feel it was necessary to hold a public hearing on this issue.
00:32:01This is why local control is so important.
00:32:04Government exists to serve the people. The people do not exist to serve the government. We are not serfs.
00:32:13Your elected officials are there to carry out your wishes.
00:32:22Corporate America has the large lobby firms. They are there. They are drowning us out.
00:32:28It is time for people to stand back up and speak to what they need to address, what is right for their towns.
00:32:38You live in the towns. They don't. They live overseas.
00:32:43And they are going to visit us.
00:32:44One morning, I would say, is to ask some people to save water in the population,
00:32:46the environment is to privatize or not.
00:32:48And there are two different points.
00:32:49One of them is extremely important to say that they are concerned about waste.
00:32:50The one point is extremely important to say that some people of NGOs are concerned with the NGOs.
00:32:57They are concerned about water in the country.
00:33:10They want our water and they want our water for profit and what they're paying less than
00:33:38a penny a gallon is just outrageous and what happens is they come in again to these small
00:33:46rural areas where there's very limited government and they use their scare tactics and they're
00:33:51a billion dollar company and you can never beat them.
00:33:57Nestle has the power to come in and alter a road, then that says that something is not
00:34:03correct with our state government.
00:34:06I went to a meeting in Hollis just to see how they go about to try to change the town
00:34:11regulations and after the meeting I was approached by their lead attorney, Mr. Ahern, as if what
00:34:20would I want to turn around and to support Nestle and what could he do for me here and I mentioned
00:34:28stuff about Route 11, how it was going to be their major truck route and he said we'll get
00:34:32the bridges fixed whatever you people need we will do and I said you can't do anything.
00:34:36I want to save the river that I live on, my game preserve, that is not up for sale.
00:34:43So we went into this thinking okay yes if we can work with them on the regulatory ordinance that they're going to be using and we only wanted a few things. If they had thrown us a
00:34:48bone and given us a couple we probably would have said hey yeah we did a great job and we kept it and we kept it and we kept it and we kept it and we kept it and we kept it.
00:34:55So we went into this thinking, okay, yes, if we can work with them on the regulatory
00:35:06ordinance that they are going to be using, and we only wanted a few things.
00:35:12If they had thrown us a bone and given us a couple, we probably would have said, hey,
00:35:16yeah, we did a great job and we kept them, you know, to only so many trucks a day or
00:35:21so many hours of use, or we, you know, did this and that.
00:35:28But they wouldn't give an inch.
00:35:31Nestle might be a wonderful company, but I have not seen it.
00:35:39We've tried to work with Nestle, but when you find out that Nestle weaves their way into
00:35:44our community, and the person that wrote our regulatory ordinance was recommended by Nestle.
00:35:51Well, the people should be writing the regulatory ordinance.
00:35:55It's our town.
00:35:56We're the taxpayers.
00:35:58So what we did was we met with the elected officials, and under the regulatory approach
00:36:03in the United States, the regulatory approach, we have ordinances in each town.
00:36:08And what those ordinances do, the regulatory ordinance pretty much tells these companies
00:36:13or a small company or a large company what they can do in their limits and so forth.
00:36:18But it only regulates them.
00:36:20We cannot say, no, we don't want you in.
00:36:23Then I found out this thing called future lost profits.
00:36:28So I found that what's going on in Freiburg is they were trying to control water extraction
00:36:34with a regulatory ordinance, and it doesn't work.
00:36:39Because now you're limiting how much profit a company can make.
00:36:43They are allowed to make profits.
00:36:46So pretty much we tried to work the regulatory approach with the elected officials.
00:36:50The elected officials, every single time we met with them, and there were probably 40
00:36:54or 50 of us that met with them, just would not listen to any of our demands.
00:36:58And finally we were like, this is going to go through just like these test wells have.
00:37:03So what do we do next?
00:37:04We know them of course very well and we have very intensive discussions with them.
00:37:09That is from land or from state to state or from state to state in the USA verschieden.
00:37:19In some places there are people who are very happy that we build fabriques or that we
00:37:26have to follow the water quality of water.
00:37:40Will the fleet of green tankers soon be transporting water from this wildlife preserve?
00:37:46Nestle's battle with the determined women of Shapley and Newfield has not yet been decided.
00:37:51Hello.
00:37:52Hello.
00:37:53Hello.
00:37:54We are from Ducklab.
00:37:55This is a Swiss production company.
00:37:57Can you give me your opinion about some people are opposed to the trucking of water?
00:38:03I have no comment.
00:38:05You have no comment on that?
00:38:06No.
00:38:07Okay.
00:38:08But for you it's good to have a job at Pollen Springs, I imagine.
00:38:11I have no comment, sir.
00:38:14You are not allowed to speak to us?
00:38:20No problem.
00:38:21Not even on that?
00:38:22No?
00:38:23No, man.
00:38:24What about you, sir?
00:38:25What about you, sir?
00:38:28Why are you doing this?
00:38:29No problem.
00:38:30You may not forget that when we close a橋, we have an inherent interest in this
00:38:56I've followed the big water tankers to Hollis, Maine, to the largest water bottling
00:39:26factory in the world.
00:39:32Half the water is pumped by Nestle from the area directly behind the factory.
00:39:43The other half is transported in tankers from pumping stations in the hinterland.
00:39:50For one tanker load, Nestle pays $10, or even nothing.
00:39:56Once bottled, the same water costs $50,000 when sold across the counter, as Poland Spring,
00:40:03natural spring water.
00:40:08In Maine, Nestle pumps about as much water as that used by the entire agricultural sector
00:40:21throughout the state.
00:40:23That's around 3 billion litres a year, and the figure is rising.
00:40:35Back in Switzerland, we're at Nestle's annual press conference.
00:40:45For us, the opportunity to film inside the company.
00:40:52I'm interested in Nestle's new brand of water, aimed at winning over consumers in developing
00:40:57countries.
00:40:59At the press conference, we are offered San Pellegrino and Vittel water.
00:41:06The new product carries the promising name Pure Life.
00:41:10The Pure Life brand, for those who don't know, 10 years ago did not exist.
00:41:14And it's an incredible story to go from zero to where we are today, one of the top brands
00:41:20that Nestle has.
00:41:21One of the reasons we've been able to grow is we've been able to offer the consumer value,
00:41:26good quality water, and different parts of the world, and it's been very well accepted.
00:41:31We're looking to take that asset and expand it to more geography, more parts of the world.
00:41:35We think the growth will, in fact, continue.
00:41:38It's a profitable brand for us too, and it's a jewel that we have in our portfolio, and our plans
00:41:43are to continue to leverage it.
00:41:45So I'm very optimistic about that brand.
00:41:49One water for the whole world.
00:41:52That's the idea behind Pure Life.
00:41:55Pure Life is purified groundwater, enriched by an artificial blend of minerals.
00:42:01It's a secret Nestle recipe.
00:42:04It's produced locally in 27 countries on five continents.
00:42:09It tastes the same everywhere.
00:42:13My Pure Life is now the top-selling bottled water in the world, growing in double digits.
00:42:21The test market for the product was Pakistan.
00:42:38The population of Pakistan totals 180 million, and it's still growing.
00:42:44In Lahore alone, there are 10 million people.
00:42:47Clean drinking water is in short supply.
00:42:52Before Nestle introduced Pure Life, bottled water was a rare sight in Pakistan.
00:42:58Now Nestle dominates a vast market that it created itself.
00:43:01I grew up in a city where you could go just about anywhere and ask for a glass of water,
00:43:05and you would get a glass of water for free without any fear of its quality or its standards.
00:43:10And what's happened over the last 10 to 15 years, I mean, in my own consciousness, is
00:43:14that I have seen and witnessed a replacement of drinking water, a commodification of drinking
00:43:19water.
00:43:20I won't say that it's Nestle that's done it.
00:43:24It's been a confluence of factors.
00:43:27Nestle appeared on the scene.
00:43:28It started providing Pure Life drinking water, and all of a sudden Coca-Cola shows up, then Pepsi
00:43:33shows up, and then a whole bunch of private, local manufactured water shows up as well, all
00:43:39producing clean water, clean water because of the terribly old and creaky infrastructure
00:43:44of the Sanitation Authority.
00:43:46And then before you know it, everywhere you go, if you ask for a glass of water, I have
00:43:49to pay 15 rupees for it.
00:44:09Our water table is falling.
00:44:15We don't have a replenished water table for a variety of reasons, and as a result, we continue
00:44:20to sink wells lower and lower, deeper and deeper, to get drinking water for Lahore.
00:44:25And at some point in the future, this resource will run out.
00:44:30And I'm also concerned about drinking water in Lahore because the infrastructure of sewage
00:44:36and sanitation and water pipes in Lahore is at least 30 years old.
00:44:41And in many places through the city, these pipes break, and drinking water and perhaps
00:44:45sewage mix, and we have all sorts of cases of gastroenteritis and water poisoning in the
00:44:50city through the year.
00:45:06How do you see that the water is dirty?
00:45:07How do you recognize that the water is dirty?
00:45:08How do you recognize that the water is dirty?
00:45:13How do you recognize that the water is dirty?
00:45:14How do you recognize that the water is dirty?
00:45:28How do you recognize that the water is dirty?
00:45:39I don't know what they're doing, I don't know what they're doing.
00:46:09I don't know what they're doing, I don't know what they're doing, I don't know what they're doing, I don't know what they're doing.
00:46:23Nestle Pure Life is the safe alternative delivered direct to homes, a service for the well-to-do.
00:46:30We film at the home distribution station in the upmarket area of Galbo.
00:46:35I introduced myself to the station manager and asked for permission to film.
00:46:43What is the problem, sir?
00:46:51But you said it's okay that we film from the outside?
00:46:55So...
00:47:01When Nestle sent its first managing director to Pakistan, he wanted to know what would be the product that I would immediately launch and he wanted an answer without thinking.
00:47:12And I immediately said water.
00:47:15And then he asked me why, and then I explained.
00:47:18I explained to him how many people travel from rural areas to urban areas every day for various tasks.
00:47:25And in this heat, people want to have clean water more than juices or cold drinks because they do not quench the thirst like water does.
00:47:36And there's nowhere you can find water.
00:47:40The University of Management Sciences in Lahore.
00:47:43In this elite institution hardly anyone drinks tap water.
00:47:47And Pure Life is a success story.
00:47:49I think part of the success of Pure Life is Nestle's marketing.
00:47:56Their positioning of the brand was good.
00:47:59It was targeted towards upper income people.
00:48:02Because assuming that you can always get water free, who would pay a premium for it?
00:48:10So most probably the poor people will not.
00:48:12In any case they can't afford the prices.
00:48:15So it is, you know, the upper class of Pakistan or upper middle class.
00:48:21And Nestle brought scale.
00:48:23And the scale was because of their marketing muscle, their distribution muscle.
00:48:27You know, their ads were very interesting.
00:48:29A lot of emphasis on the quality of water and water that you can trust.
00:48:34For a lot of youth, it was fashionable to be walking around with Pure Life in hand.
00:48:43You know, it was making a statement about themselves also.
00:48:46So it was not just functional benefits.
00:48:49It was positioned on that, that if you are, you know, a modern person.
00:48:55If you are, you know, a person who is health conscious.
00:49:00They are, in some sense, the jet setters of Pakistan.
00:49:10I think Nestle and bottled water companies have been able to effectively appeal to a part of the Pakistani psyche
00:49:17that likes things like this.
00:49:20They've appealed to a lifestyle.
00:49:22I read somewhere recently that a lot of the cola manufacturers decided to go into making bottled water.
00:49:29Because they knew that the market for cola was limited because it's so clearly unhealthy for you.
00:49:35But the market for drinking water is unlimited.
00:49:38It's a constant supply.
00:49:39So it's just a question of being able to effectively commodify drinking water.
00:49:44And, I mean, I've seen it happen before my eyes in the last 20 years.
00:49:48And it's not necessarily within the realm of pure conspiracy theory.
00:49:53I'm sure at some level this is part of a business plan put forward by a company that,
00:49:57look, here's a market where there's nobody drinking bottled water.
00:50:02If we go in and do this, this, this, all of the sudden we have 10 million consumers.
00:50:07How's that?
00:50:09It's brilliant.
00:50:28About 40 kilometres from Lahore, there's Nestle's Sheikupura factory.
00:50:32When the company introduced Pure Life to Pakistan some 10 years ago, it was launched from here.
00:50:46The water that was tested there turned out to be the best quality that we had tested.
00:50:51So it was the best quality water we were getting.
00:50:55So obviously we chose that.
00:50:57Right next to the factory, the dwellings of Bhati Dilwan village.
00:51:10Most of the village population work in agriculture.
00:51:15The arrival of Nestle brought extra employment.
00:51:18But the factory is also blamed for the biggest problem in the village.
00:51:22There's a lack of clean drinking water.
00:51:25So the quality of this community does not help us with water.
00:51:28This, it's an example of our mineralization,
00:51:48which represents empleados from other people.
00:51:51The old wells used by the population no longer reach deep enough.
00:52:04Around the factory, several wells have run dry.
00:52:20In order to ensure good water, the deeper you go the better it is and also consistent
00:52:27quality because if you take out water from a shallow surface, it will be very polluted
00:52:35and it will be very adulterated so it is advisable to go very deep.
00:52:43A lot of the law relating to groundwater is unclear.
00:52:46It's unclear who owns groundwater, who has a right to it, whether the state has a right
00:52:50to regulate groundwater, whether people who own land over the groundwater have a right
00:52:54to the resource or whether a company can come and pay for the rights of groundwater.
00:52:58These issues haven't been thrashed through legally, economically or on any sort of policy
00:53:04forum yet and it remains to be done.
00:53:08Because of Nestle's booming business with Pure Life, the company has been pumping more
00:53:13and more water out of the ground.
00:53:16But what effect is this having on the groundwater level and on the quality of the water drunk
00:53:21by the people of the village?
00:53:24I asked Nestle Pakistan about a study they carried out but got no reply.
00:53:31And for me that was took the pandemic to see it E past Stephanal 沒有 Latestone
00:53:34living and running was actuallymamic interesting because it is good for people.
00:53:35After 14 years, people were born properly and who ì have ancients with any other
00:53:38busily, children, the people can never bite myself.
00:53:42But, their finding people were threatened to see the water.
00:53:44So, if you had to meet them already, if you had that help you pass, because there actually
00:53:49would be Singapore.
00:53:50For the disabilities inいきます, people would will put water against water.
00:53:53Probably whilst Chloe δine at home, others would call you Ba對不對.
00:53:54They might not help you today, but they would have no additional work of these things.
00:53:59They don't get any water, but they don't get water, they don't get any water.
00:54:07We can't get any water.
00:54:10There are many people who have to be able to get water.
00:54:15They don't get any water, so many people don't get water.
00:54:20Here in Bhati Dilwan, there are no donation request forms, but the villagers have sent
00:54:48a petition to the company. They too would like to have access to the clean water lying
00:54:53deep down under their village. Nestle has turned down their request.
00:55:18Nestle, in the end, is really stealing local water sources from people, and that's their
00:55:27life, their livelihood, and the livelihoods and lives of their children.
00:55:30Don't forget that bottled water is relatively a small business. It's a drop in the ocean.
00:55:37As a matter of fact, all the water that Nestle is selling accounts for 0.009 percent of the
00:55:47fresh water that is being used by the humankind. So, I mean, it's not even a drop in the ocean.
00:55:52It's even less. There's certainly irony in the situation that clean drinking water is being
00:55:57extracted, ground water is being extracted, and then being sold as a commodity, essentially
00:56:01to the urban upper class, when people in a secondary city like Shekhupura don't get
00:56:07clean drinking water themselves.
00:56:16The river Ravi is a floating cesspit. Where the environment is at its most polluted, that's
00:56:27where clean water is at its most precious. From Pakistan, Nestle even exports its pure life
00:56:35to Afghanistan.
00:56:45According to the United Nations, some 900 million people throughout the world have no access to
00:56:51clean water. Water from the bottle has a promising future. So, shouldn't we be grateful to Nestle for
00:56:58supplying such a safe product? Is it the company's fault that many people cannot afford it?
00:57:05Today's morning is it going to be done. The 6th Luzerner Menschenrechtsforum.
00:57:13Normally there will be two days long there is a quiet and peaceful discussion. This year
00:57:18is a special discussion. There is a good news for Nestle-Verwaltungsrats-Präsident Peter
00:57:19Brabeck. Nestle verletze selbst Menschenrechte und hat nichts zu suchen an einem Menschenrechtsforum,
00:57:28of the Human Rights Forum,
00:57:30says young people from the UNI.
00:57:32People have to buy teures Flaschenwassers,
00:57:35so that they can't pay for their sins.
00:57:38Where is the Human Rights of the Human Rights?
00:57:40Just to say, that it's a human rights,
00:57:43is maybe a bit less.
00:57:45In fact, is not the question of what a human rights is,
00:57:49that is it, but the question is,
00:57:53how can we do this human rights?
00:57:58We don't have to think about what a human rights is,
00:58:02but we don't have to think about how this rights,
00:58:05that means that the access to water in the everyday life
00:58:08can be made.
00:58:11And there are a lot of reasons to solve.
00:58:15The important thing is not to worry,
00:58:17we have to make more investments in the water infrastructure.
00:58:22The second point is not to be a water-subvention
00:58:25for swimming pools and for golf places,
00:58:28and no subvention for biocraft-stoffe
00:58:31from the extra four built-in plants,
00:58:34but also subvention for water,
00:58:37for the poorest and for the nature.
00:58:39Peter Brabeck is proudly presenting his biography.
00:58:54Top shots of Swiss big business have turned up in his honour.
00:58:57In his book, Peter Brabeck again stresses the importance of water,
00:59:20as a human right,
00:59:21but also as a source of profit for his company.
00:59:24Peter Brabeck, President of the United States
00:59:26Je mehr ich nachgedacht habe,
00:59:29was ist eigentlich der einzige wichtigste Faktor,
00:59:32dass eine Firma noch einmal 140 Euro bestehen kann,
00:59:36bin ich ganz klar aufs Wasser gekommen.
00:59:39Wir brauchen das Wasser,
00:59:41unsere Konsumenten brauchen das Wasser überhaupt, um zu leben.
00:59:44Wir brauchen das Wasser, um die Rohmaterialien anzubauen.
00:59:47Wir brauchen das Wasser in der Fabrikation.
00:59:49Und wir brauchen das Wasser anschließend unsere Konsumenten,
00:59:52um unsere Produkte wieder vorzubereiten.
00:59:54Also für Nestle ist Wasser das wichtigste und kritischste Faktor
01:00:00für die Nachhaltigkeit.
01:00:01I can see now a higher level of recognition
01:00:04of water being the issue that we have to tackle
01:00:09than perhaps climate change,
01:00:11which I think is absolutely right.
01:00:13I have said before,
01:00:14we will be running out of water long before we are running out of oil.
01:00:18Together, we can influence,
01:00:21we can alter,
01:00:22we can protect and preserve
01:00:24the vital resource of water for future generations.
01:00:28We want the world to prosper
01:00:30for at least another 4,500 years.
01:00:35And that's what global corporate citizenship is all about.
01:00:44Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria and probably in Africa.
01:00:55Some 15 million people live here.
01:01:09The vast majority of the population
01:01:11is dependent on packed drinking water.
01:01:14Most popular is sachet water,
01:01:17so-called pure water.
01:01:20A half a litre costs five naira.
01:01:23That's about two US cents.
01:01:26The water is well packed,
01:01:29but it's not always pure.
01:01:31Sachet water is frequently the cause of bacterial infection,
01:01:35especially among children.
01:01:37The same goes for locally produced bottled water.
01:01:41Nestle Pure Life has been available in Nigeria
01:01:44since 2005.
01:01:46Clean, safe drinking water in the upper price sector.
01:01:51We have various multinationals in Nigeria
01:01:55that invest into water, like Nestle.
01:01:58The same thing happens to Coca-Cola
01:02:00that is producing ever water,
01:02:01and many others, as a matter of fact.
01:02:02And many others, as a matter of fact.
01:02:04So you see, these are multinationals
01:02:10that understand the importance of water.
01:02:13They know that in Nigeria,
01:02:15water supply is still at its infantile stage,
01:02:20such that the government hasn't really taken proper hold
01:02:23of providing enough water for the nationals and for the citizens.
01:02:28So the industry is indeed profiting
01:02:31and exploiting the weakness of government.
01:02:35And in doing this,
01:02:37the person who is holding the wrong end of the stick
01:02:41is the ordinary citizen,
01:02:43who is helpless.
01:02:45He doesn't know how safe the water he is drinking is.
01:02:51Nestle Pure Life, a bottle of it,
01:02:53is more expensive than the daily income of many Nigerians.
01:02:58That Pure Life bottle is even more expensive than a litre of petrol.
01:03:04A litre of petrol in Nigeria is 65 naira.
01:03:09And there you have one bottle of that Nestle water
01:03:13costing about 100 naira.
01:03:18In Lagos, corruption and mismanagement
01:03:21have brought the public water supply system almost to a standstill.
01:03:25Even in the upper-class quarters,
01:03:27water is delivered to homes on pushcarts instead of through the pipe.
01:03:35You can be sure of a permanent supply of running water
01:03:38only if you drill your own well
01:03:40and operate a diesel generator to pump the water into the tank on your roof.
01:03:47Only the rich can afford safe and clean water
01:03:51because our income per capita is decreasing.
01:03:56Even the middle class,
01:03:59some of them can no longer afford it
01:04:02because what they have as their income
01:04:04may not be able to take care of their basic needs.
01:04:08So that already is encroaching into their economy
01:04:13and that also is opening up more people
01:04:15to the hazards of drinking bad water.
01:04:27Located in the lagoon of Lagos is Makoko.
01:04:30It's a slum neighbourhood built on stilts.
01:04:33I was told that Makoko lives from fishing.
01:04:48But in the Lagos Lagoon too, fish are rarely to be seen.
01:04:52The residents of Makoko also have to buy their drinking water
01:05:11from businessmen who have set up water stations in the slums.
01:05:17The water is of doubtful quality.
01:05:19It's piped here from the mainland, from a private well.
01:05:22onde hilly because of ignorance.
01:05:24It's
01:05:31ástico!
01:05:38Fordescendientes
01:05:40And our nineties are poor people
01:05:44, I think mud資格 is dangerous.
01:05:46But I should bring that trainer for us,
01:05:48because we want to make a career of our lives.
01:05:50This money has to suffice for a family of
01:06:2012. Buying sachet water for her baby son is almost a luxury for 16-year-old Mary Setonji.
01:06:31The family makes kuli kuli, little yambals, which it sells in the neighborhood.
01:06:47In the marketplace, empty pet bottles are sold. Pure life, the cocoa style.
01:06:54Cholera and typhus are rampant in Makoko. Even the slum dwellers know that.
01:07:01But here, there's simply no alternative.
01:07:11Cholera and typhus are rampant in Makoko.
01:07:16Even the slum dwellers know that. But here, there's simply no alternative.
01:07:26The slum continues to grow on its own rotting garbage.
01:07:31The reality in the Global South is so powerful now. It is such a life and death issue.
01:07:34I mean, more children die every day from dirty water than from HIV, AIDS, war, traffic accidents
01:07:38and malaria put together. It's the number one killer.
01:07:40And so when you have that kind of life and death situation, and then a company like Nestle comes
01:07:47in and says, oh, we've got the answer. Pure life is the answer. And we're going to sell
01:07:52you water that we're going to take from your very own home.
01:07:55And so when you have that kind of life and death situation, and then a company like Nestle
01:07:59comes in and says, oh, we've got the answer. Pure life is the answer. And we're going to
01:08:03sell you water that we're going to take from your very own aquifers when there are no public
01:08:06taps. And when you turn the water on, half the time nothing comes out. And the other half,
01:08:11when it does, it's polluted and you wouldn't use it. Then I have to go beyond saying that it's
01:08:18irresponsible to say that this is almost a criminal act.
01:08:23In the dritten Welt ist heute in der dritten Welt überhaupt wahrscheinlich mehr
01:08:30than 96 Prozent der Trinkwasserversorgung in den Händen des Staates. Und das funktioniert
01:08:37nicht. Das hat doch nichts mit Privatisierung zu tun. Warum wollen Sie nicht endlich einmal
01:08:42von dieser Ideologie wegkommen und die Tatsachen und die Fakten in den Augen sehen? Das Problem
01:08:48ist nicht Privatisierung, nicht Privatisierung. Das Problem ist, dass die Investitionen in
01:08:52nicht da sind, um eine gute Wasserversorgung sicherzustellen. Das Problem ist, dass in der
01:08:57dritten Welt, während wir in Europa 30 bis 35 Prozent des Wassers verlieren, verlieren
01:09:04des Trinkwassers durch die Leitungen, durch die Infrastrukturfehler, verlieren die in der
01:09:13dritten Welt 60 bis 70 Prozent des Wassers geht verloren. Das ist das Problem. Wer sich jetzt
01:09:18darum kümmert, ist vollkommen gleich. Ob sich jetzt der Staat kümmert, soll sich
01:09:22jetzt der Staat kümmern.
01:09:23There's no easy short-term solution to that. But I do say, however, that the answer is
01:09:28not an inadequate or corrupt government combined with a transnational corporation that's in
01:09:33there for their own profit. That's the deadliest combination of all. And our argument to the
01:09:39World Bank is, if you've got money to provide water services in these communities where there
01:09:45isn't good government, then let's set up an arm's length agency that runs on those efficiency
01:09:51principles, but is not for profit.
01:09:53In a backyard in Lagos, this company called Golden Dip is producing sachet water.
01:10:14The brand is Acuro, and it's considered to be clean and trustworthy.
01:10:26I believe that this water can make me rich produce like 2,000 bags. Inside one bag, for
01:10:3350 CL we have 200 pieces inside the bag. Why 75 CL? That one is 120. So because of the
01:10:40procedure for bottle water is a little bit hard, because we are using manual for the production.
01:10:45So before we fill the bottle, the wrapper, the tapper and the mold, so it's taking a lot of time.
01:10:53So it's just minimal that we produce for the bottle. But let me say like a 50 carton for bottle water.
01:11:00This entrepreneur has invested a lot of money in a filter system.
01:11:08He wants to expand further into the bottled water business.
01:11:14For all we that we just started, I can say Nestle has been heard all over the world, while this
01:11:24one is just within Lagos now. So you know there is a great difference between the two.
01:11:29But we are praying for we to grow like them.
01:11:33All right runners, even looking for the bottle spring for natural spring water.
01:11:37I'm here to keep you moving. Let's go.
01:11:40It is my also contain Kate and Jen. We got your water. Come on up here guys.
01:11:46It's a 2009 I&J New York City Arizona human training.
01:11:51Keeping all our runners hydrated. Like Ben. Ben is staying hydrated. We got weeds. Come on mommy. You can do it as well. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
01:12:13At the New York Marathon, nearly a quarter of a million litres of Poland spring water are given away. Free.
01:12:28It's all part of Nestle's aggressive marketing strategy. And it's successful.
01:12:34More and more people have Poland spring drinking water from Maine delivered to their homes.
01:12:42From untouched nature, direct into the refrigerator, Poland spring has become the top selling spring water in New York.
01:13:09With its population of 8 million, New York is the biggest beverage market on the American East Coast.
01:13:20Wherever I drive, I see the green delivery trucks.
01:13:24Every year, in the USA alone, the beverage industry uses up more than 800,000 tons of plastic.
01:13:41Four out of five pet bottles in the US end up as garbage along roadsides or in the sea.
01:14:00The shelves in the shopping centers of today are piled high with the garbage of tomorrow.
01:14:07New Yorkers drink bottled water when they have access to the cleanest, best water in the world.
01:14:13It comes from the Catskills. It is the cleanest, safest water you could possibly drink.
01:14:18It's just marketing. It suddenly became cool and they connected it to health.
01:14:23And they even told us we needed eight glasses a day, which, by the way, is not true.
01:14:27And they told us that we had to always have it on our little hydrating tool,
01:14:31that we had to have it on us at all times.
01:14:33So I talk to kids now and they'll say,
01:14:35OK, I'm trying to understand what you're saying, but how would I get from my house to my school without water?
01:14:41I mean, this is brilliant marketing. And, you know, they've made tons of money telling us basically a lie.
01:14:53From New York, I head off again to Maine, some 600 kilometers to the north.
01:15:00I need to know the latest on the legal wrangling about the pumping stations.
01:15:07Welcome to a special edition of Radioactive, a grassroots environmental and social justice news journal.
01:15:12Today's call-in topic is on large-scale corporate water extraction and community control.
01:15:18Nestle, the world's largest food and beverage company, owns the bottled water label Poland Springs in Maine,
01:15:25currently extracting from eight wells in the state with intentions to expand.
01:15:30Town residents objecting to the sale of their water find themselves in positions of limited recourse within current regulatory processes.
01:15:49In the town of Freiburg, the bulldozers are in action.
01:15:53The battle around the second pumping station went up to the highest court in the state of Maine.
01:16:00The town of Freiburg, lost.
01:16:02Nestle is allowed to go ahead.
01:16:05Soon the company will be loading up its tankers with even more local spring water, legally.
01:16:12Freiburg was granted only the right to limit the number of tanker trips.
01:16:17It has since set this limit at 36,000 per year.
01:16:24It's a sad, sad, tragic commentary on what's legal and what's theft, you know.
01:16:34Is it legal to steal?
01:16:36Is it ethically, morally?
01:16:38What's legal and what's ethical and moral are two different things.
01:16:43You don't betray people.
01:16:45You know, it's like the courts that are supposed to defend you betray you.
01:16:49And you feel, you feel betrayed.
01:16:52But here in Freiburg, Nestle doesn't only have enemies.
01:17:04Some of the local residents are pleased with the court decision.
01:17:08Freiburg needs a tax base.
01:17:11They need jobs, they need some things that would come into town.
01:17:15Even though it's been a little bit rocky for them in terms of a number of folks in town that didn't want them here,
01:17:21or that don't like the whole idea of bottled water.
01:17:25They've made major contributions to the town.
01:17:28They've funded a couple of temporary classrooms.
01:17:31They've helped the local academy build a gym.
01:17:34They've supported the Tin Mountain Conservation Center.
01:17:37And they've done a number of, well, they've supported a ski team at the academy.
01:17:44So they are really trying to be good neighbors.
01:17:47I'm one of the ones that was trying to put the stop to the pump station in East Freiburg,
01:17:53which is a quarter mile from my house.
01:17:56And I've been helping battle this for almost four and a half years,
01:18:02at the cost of $60,000 in legal fees that a bunch of us have put together.
01:18:10So, you know, it's changed my whole life now.
01:18:13I live in a rural residential zoned area, nice and quiet, with four kids.
01:18:18And now I've got to listen to who knows how many trucks going by my house 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
01:18:25I don't want anything to do with them.
01:18:27And I refuse to buy anything that's made by Nestle's.
01:18:31If I have to go hungry, I will.
01:18:37So that's my feeling.
01:18:39So you can tell I'm pretty angry about it.
01:18:41And I'm not the only one.
01:18:43They are corrupting the process in my community,
01:18:47a community that three generations graduated from the high school,
01:18:51that have been here for centuries.
01:18:53And they're orchestrating the process so that they will eventually win,
01:19:00whether they'll win because people are beat down and they're tired of the fight,
01:19:05or they don't even have the money to pay for the lawyers.
01:19:08Nestle has unlimited legal funds.
01:19:11You know, we don't have the legal funds.
01:19:13We don't have the PR machines behind us.
01:19:15But if you look at their message in Freiburg, their good neighbor policy,
01:19:20and you look at their message throughout the country,
01:19:23they're all very self-serving.
01:19:25They have a project called Project WET for water education in the community school systems.
01:19:30Well, oh, gee, they did a pilot program in Freiburg.
01:19:34Isn't that interesting?
01:19:36And then they can say, look, we did a pilot program for Project WET for water education.
01:19:41Look, we're helping the community.
01:19:43Well, you're helping the community conserve water
01:19:45while you're taking 150 million gallons out of the community.
01:19:49So, you know what?
01:19:51Of course they are working even if they aren't many.
01:19:52Like a holiday to the community.
01:19:53And then, I'll go to the club did the entrepreneur.
01:19:56And then, I'll walk into grenade I'm constantly traveling the moment in that village and it's not
01:20:01quite obvious too soon.
01:20:03There are dogs and people who live here 45 of resources agendas are smaller as well.
01:20:11Thank you so much.
01:20:13совет knives are critical in selling materials.
01:20:17In the wildlife preserve, the story had another ending.
01:20:45Here, Nestle has been defeated.
01:20:54The company must remove its test wells from the protected area.
01:20:58The towns of Shapley and Newfield have declared all water in their territories to be a fundamental
01:21:04right.
01:21:07Water belongs to nature and may be used only by the local residents.
01:21:14Large-scale pumping and commercialization of the water is no longer permitted.
01:21:23Both Shapley and Newfield have cited the right to local self-determination, a right which is
01:21:30anchored in the Constitution of the USA.
01:21:33All of us had the same passion and once we found out that we couldn't work under the
01:21:40regulatory approach, we had to find something in order to keep them out.
01:21:45And that's how we found the right space and we went around again to educate the people
01:21:50about the right space and we pretty much said, if you want Nestle into your community, then
01:21:55go the regulatory approach.
01:21:57That will regulate them.
01:22:00If they come in, fill out the permit, cross their T's, dot their I's, you cannot say no
01:22:05to this large company.
01:22:07And God forbid if you ever want to regulate anything stricter with them once they're in,
01:22:12because you will never win in court as Freiburg.
01:22:15And now you have chosen an instrument which is quite new, this rights-based ordinance.
01:22:20Yes.
01:22:21It's something that...
01:22:22It's brand new in the state of Maine.
01:22:24It's brand new in the state.
01:22:25You were the first and even in the states.
01:22:27Yes.
01:22:28It hasn't been tested in court.
01:22:30With the rights-based, we go to court with the Constitution on our side.
01:22:35You know, the Constitution protect the people.
01:22:38So I would rather have the rights-based on my side in the community than the regulatory,
01:22:43because we've seen the regulatory not work.
01:22:46We've seen Nestle go to court and win several times, not just in Maine, all around the country.
01:22:51So if I had a choice of either having the rights-based or the regulatory on my side going
01:22:57to court, it would be the rights-based.
01:22:59This is where Shapley's board of selectmen holds its meetings.
01:23:05In fact, the board had opposed the local women's demand to carry their fight to constitutional
01:23:10level.
01:23:11So we wanted to get the rights-based ordinance on the town warrant where everybody would
01:23:18vote it.
01:23:19Well, the selectmen again said, no, we're not going to do it.
01:23:23And you know, this is a majority of citizens who elected these people.
01:23:29So they said, no, we're not going to do it.
01:23:30So they refused the citizens' petition.
01:23:32They refused to allow the citizens to vote on a petition that they gave to their own selectmen.
01:23:36Right.
01:23:37So there's a little loophole in the law.
01:23:39Which Gloria found.
01:23:40Where we could call our own town meeting.
01:23:43All right.
01:23:44This is the vote to adopt.
01:23:45The Shapley water rights of local government being active in the town of Shapley.
01:23:48At this time, all those in favour of adopting that ordinance, please so indicate by raising
01:23:53your ballot.
01:23:54With 114 votes to 66, the women won the day.
01:23:59For water as a fundamental right and against Nestle.
01:24:04Shortly after Shapley, neighbouring Newfield voted likewise.
01:24:09The wildlife preserve will remain untouched.
01:24:16Well, hello everybody.
01:24:20The reason why we're here today is to celebrate our victory, our awesome victory in Newfield
01:24:26and Shapley.
01:24:27I think one of the major accomplishments that we've all made in Shapley and Newfield is all
01:24:35of us coming together and working for one issue.
01:24:38Every single person here had played an enormous role in it and we could not have done it without
01:24:44each and every one of you.
01:24:45So, again.
01:24:46So, it really was a whole grassroots effort and I think it's just unbelievable because
01:24:57many of us were never activists and it's all thanks to you and I just want to say that
01:25:03I'm very humble having that experience and I think of all of you as friends.
01:25:09And, again, thank you very much.
01:25:15God bless America, land that we love.
01:25:26Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.
01:25:35From the mountains, to the prairie, to the ocean,
01:25:43to the ocean, to the ocean.
01:25:48It's a small victory, achieved by two small towns in the hinterland of Maine.
01:25:56But who can resist in countries where there is little democracy?
01:26:00And even less water?
01:26:02In Pakistan? Or in Nigeria?
01:26:08Clean drinking water is becoming increasingly precious.
01:26:12Some can afford the luxury of bottled water.
01:26:15But the others?
01:26:22To whom does the water on our planet belong?
01:26:25That way?
01:26:30Doе и лес chapея
01:26:31Doе и лео
01:26:36Yeo
01:26:39è
01:26:43La
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