Dear JOSEPH Raglione,
When Nestlé subsidiary Poland Spring came
to the tiny town of Fryeburg, Maine, USA nearly
a decade ago, residents noticed that their
water was vanishing. Lake levels were lowering.
Streams were getting smaller. Nestlé was pumping
the aquifer under their town for all it could get.
When the citizens of Fryeburg spoke up,
Nestlé unleashed an aggressive, divide-and-conquer
strategy. It sued the town, nearly bankrupting
several local activists. It worked to ensure that
local regulatory boards were friendly to its position
and it took its case all the way to the state
Supreme Court. But Nestlé also set up a
Poland Spring shop for local outreach, and
established the Fryeburg Business Association
-- staffed by a Nestlé employee --
to lead a charm offensive. Local schools
even have a bottled water vending machine
and Nestlé hands out bottles of water to
people in the town.
That’s right – a town sitting atop one of America’s
most famous aquifers is being sold its own water...
in plastic bottles. Nestlé is boldly planting a story --
telling the residents, even the children,
of Fryeburg to get used to drinking their
own spring water through Nestlé’s plastic bottles.
But we have a different story to tell and we
need your help. We’ve been speaking with
local activists -- the Friends of the Fryeburg
Water District -- and they say that
it’s vital we restore local residents’
sense of pride and ownership of their
water resources.
That’s why we’re raising money to buy
public drinking fountains for the town
specifically designed to fill up reusable
water bottles. We’ll also supply local residents
with their own Fryeburg-branded water bottles,
to take pride in the fight they’ve waged and
send a clear message to Nestlé:
We don’t want your bottled water.
Chip in today to buy water bottles
and public drinking fountains for the
Fryeburg school and town!
Nestlé has planted its presence in Fryeburg and
its schools because it wants the local children to
grow up assuming their local water should come
in plastic bottles. To teach them that it comes from
Nestlé, not from the tap.
But imagine if the residents of Fryeburg
had their customized water bottles,
which they filled up directly from their
local springs. Above each of the
“hydration stations”
will be a plaque with information and
an inspirational quote about their
natural spring water.
Each day, the kids tote their water bottles to school,
and every time they fill them up it gives them a
sense of pride in their natural spring water,
reinforcing that they don’t have to depend on
Nestlé for their water.
After a long battle with Nestlé,
the townsfolk are exhausted.
Many people took out first or second mortgages
on their home during the long legal battle.
Their muscles tense up every time they see a
tanker truck rumble down their quiet roads,
but they have always been playing defense.
But after a couple of dramatic shake-ups,
the citizens of Fryeburg are starting to have
hope again. In the biggest victory,
the Fryeburg Water District resigned en mass
after being hounded over conflict of interest,
opening up the election to locals who want
control of their water.
The movement is energized, and if we can
help give it these very visible, public
markers of success, people can take
even greater pride in their pristine
local resource, and second-guess
Nestlé's attempts to colonize the town.
Fryeburg isn’t the only fight, but right now
Fryeburg is the testing ground for
Nestlé's goal of water rights’ contracts
that will last for generations.
And we’re pushing back.
Around the world Nestlé is trying to buy water
out from under local people, purchasing it at
a fraction of the price that it's worth, and
making outrageous profits. Bottled water
companies create massive pollution and
run campaigns to make people
suspicious of tap water.
They also try to tell their own story --
that public resources should be privatized
and owned by multinational corporations.
Nestlé's Chairman of the Board famously
declared that the idea that human beings
have a right to water was an "extreme" solution.
Instead, Nestlé thinks that water should be
priced and sold on the open market --
in reality, it means that Nestlé should be
able to buy up a town's water rights and
make billions in profits.
Nestlé has shown that it will do whatever
it can get away with, from causing local
wells to run dry in Pakistan to pumping
out millions of gallons during drought
conditions in Canada and California.
We are all actors in this Story, and we're not
going to let corporations like Nestlé write the script.
Nestlé wants to reduce the world to things
that can be bought and sold, so that it can muscle
in on small towns and force them into terrible
long-term contracts. But we are not just lone
individuals.
We are friends, neighbors, and citizens
united by our desire for a better world for
ourselves and for future generations.
Acting together, we can show Nestlé that water
is a human right, not a private good,
and help support local water resources.
Chip in today to buy water bottles and
public drinking fountains for the
Fryeburg school and town!
Thank you,
-Claiborne, Michael, Annie, Allison and the
rest of us at the Story of Stuff.
 | 
No comments:
Post a Comment