Apparently, Nestle CEO Tim Brown, says he wants to **increase** the amount of water Nestle takes from California for bottled water, regardless of how devastating the drought is.

From The Guardian:

“The fact is, if I stop bottling water tomorrow, people would buy another brand of bottled water,” Brown said in a discussion with a Nasa hydrologist on 89.3 KPCC radio. “People need to hydrate. As the second largest bottler in the state, we’re filling a role many others are filling. It’s driven by consumer demand, it’s driven by an on-the-go society that needs to hydrate. Frankly, we’re very happy they are doing it in a healthier way.”

Brown then went on to admit Nestle wastes 30% of the *700 million* gallons of water per year Nestle takes out of California groundwater — then declared attempts by Nestle to reduce that water waste by 12%. (12%? Why ‘12’%?)

Not good enough for too many, when currently, entire towns are running out of water.

Wal Mart also refuses to stop taking water from California for their bottled water.

Starbucks, however, after an embarrassing reveal of their taking water from California, worst drought ever or not — stated they will move their operations to Pennsylvania during the course of the drought, where the water is plentiful.

My request to all of you out there in the world:

Check where your bottled water is coming from!

Are you supporting Nestle, Wal Mart, Crystal Geyser, Safeway-Lucerne?

Turns out, I was. I used to drink Crystal Geyser mineral water every day.

No More.

All those companies above have plans to continue bottling much-needed-elsewhere California water. At least two, Nestle and Crystal Geyser, plan to increase their pumping out and bottling of water, building new plants — taking more groundwater from this desperately dry region.

Are you drinking water bottled in California during this historic drought?

Kudos to Starbucks — finally — for waking up and moving their Ethos Water *out* of California.

If you really want to voice your concern/protest, contact:

California Governor Jerry Brown.

Also:

A petition against Nestle’s water privatization push

Former Nestle CEO, now Chairman of Nestle, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, has said:

“The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution.”

What??

Free and clear access to water not a human right?

Brabeck-Letmathe has since backtracked on that statement while his corporation has not stopped its aggressive push to privatize the global water supply, buying up headwaters, convincing towns with few resources to sell their water rights to Nestle, lobbying Congress, on and on…

Bottled water brands also owned by Nestle:

Perrier, Pellegrino, Poland Spring, Vittel, Pure Life, Arrowhead, Deer Park… and more.

United we stand:

All that comes to mind when wondering how in the world do we fight back against such behemoths of greed and aggression.

Thank you for reading — please pass along.

….also — please recycle your water bottle when you are done with it, if you must buy bottled water, at all.