Six Nations Nestle Water Crisis


Written by: Jocelyn Paul


Figure 1 Ken Greene boiling water in his home at the Six Nations reserve. Photograph: Jennifer Roberts for the Guardian


When it comes to water rights and controversy Nestle has been in the spotlight quite a few times. And yet again they seem to be in the middle of another controversy. This time with the Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada. On January 22nd Nestle Waters Canada met with the Six Nations Band Council’s Committee of the Whole to discuss their application for water bottling on Six Nations territory. Currently the company draws over 3.6 million liters of water daily from Six Nation’s treaty land, and they are wanting to continue that. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change asked the company to “engage the communities directly to listen to their concerns and work with them” (Patterson)
Chief Ava Hill asked Nestle representatives, “If Six Nations say we don’t agree with those permits, will you shut those plants down?”
Nestle say they couldn’t answer and stated that they weren’t “hearing the truth”. But Chief Hill assertively contradicted saying, “Well the truth is you’re taking water out of the ground and we don’t want you to.” (Patterson)
Nestle’s attempt to continue their permit is further infuriating by the fact that 11,000 of Six Nation residents don’t have access to clean water. (Patterson) Many of the residents on the reserve are not connected to the water treatment plant and they either have no running water or it is too polluted to use. Not only is it concerning that people are lacking access to clean water to begin with, but in Canada of all places. A country that has 60% of the world’s lakes. The Six Nations reserve is also located just 90 minutes away from Toronto which is Canada’s richest city. 50 other indigenous communities have long term boil advisories in effect, with an estimated 63,000 people lacking access to drinkable water for at least a year. There’s a huge disparity in equal access to water between the first nation citizens and non-native citizen of Canada. Dawn Martin-Hill, Six Nations local and indigenous studies professor calling it “environmental racism”. (Shimo)
Nestle trying to obtain more water rights while nearby residents are living without, is strikingly similar to the situation in Flint Michigan where just 2 hours away from the city, Nestle was pumping over 130 million gallons of water from Evart Michigan. Nestle also applied for a permit extension, asking for a 60% increase in gallons pumped per year totaling 210 million gallons and demanding to pay no more than their current payment of just $200 per year. (Glenza) All of this while residents in Flint don’t have water clean enough to bath in or water plants with. Now Nestle claims that they have sustainable practices. But residents of Evart are not happy with their presence and environmentalist in California are waiting for the to see if the company can continue to pump water from the San Bernardino National forest even though their permit is now 30 years expired. (Glenza)
Similarly, Nestle is extracting water from Six Nations territory on expired permits, and they pay the Six Nations absolutely nothing for the water that they take. So in response the Six Nations are currently the province in the superior court of Ontario. With water shortages across the global becoming a reality in the near future Nestle and companies like it are trying to bottle as much as they can beforehand (Shimo). This is leaving indigenous communities in a crisis. It’s somewhat grotesque that this company is bottling up the water from this community’s land, taking that access away leaving them with the only option to buy bottled water from these companies.  






Sources

Glenza, Jessica. “Nestlé Pays $200 a Year to Bottle Water near Flint – Where Water Is Undrinkable.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Sept. 2017, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/29/nestle-pays-200-a-year-to-bottle-water-near-flint-where-water-is-undrinkable.

Patterson, Brent. “Six Nations of the Grand River Challenges Nestle's Plan to Keep Taking Water from Its Territory.” AWARE Simcoe, 2018, aware-simcoe.ca/2018/01/six-nations-of-the-grand-river-challenges-nestles-plan-to-keep-taking-water-from-its-territory/.

Shimo, Alexandra. “While Nestlé Extracts Millions of Litres from Their Land, Residents Have No Drinking Water.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Oct. 2018, www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-six-nations-nestle-running-water

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