Written By: Allison Baker
For this post I have chosen an issue related to water use. We all know about Nestle, but did anyone know that they have seven different brands of bottled water? These brands include “Ice Mountain, Poland Spring, Deer Park, Zephyrhills, Ozarka, Arrowhead, and good ol' Nestlé PureLife” (Molloy). The unfortunate matter of things is that they are sucking water out of tribal lands to use for their bottled water. Nestle is located mostly out of California in the United States, which is experiencing a large draught at the moment. For some reason, this makes Nestle feel entitled to pump water out of the Six Nations land. While Nestle is pumping this water out, those on the reservation go without. It is unfair on every level, and something must be done to stop it.
Only 90 minutes away from Toronto lies a First Nation that is without running water. They rely on a bucket of water for bathing and as well as a toilet. Shimo states that “it is a challenging existence, full of frustration, exhaustion and health problems, and reminiscent of life in some developing countries. But this is not the “third world”. It is Canada, which regularly ranks as one of the United Nations’ top places in the world to live” (Shimo). In the particular article that I read titled While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water, by Alexandra Shimo, we get to hear a little bit about Iokarenhtha Thomas who lives in the area. She talks about how her and her husband have to travel 8 km to a public tap in order to access water. They make this trip two times a week. Sadly, this water is not drinkable, so they also journey once a week to a town 10 km away to buy bottled water for drinking. All the while, “the beverage company Nestlé extracts millions of litres of water daily from Six Nations treaty land” (Shimo).
Shimo states that Nestle “is extracting up to 3.6m litres of water daily” (Shimo) from the surrounding areas. They take this water from Erin well, which lies on land obtained by the Six Nations under two treats, the Nanfan Treaty in 1701 and and the Haldimand Tract in 1784. To be more specific, there are six tribes that make up the Six Nations- the “Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora” (Shimo). They were given an area of 3,845 sq. km originally, but Ontario later broke the treaties and reduced the land size down to a mere 194 sq. km. While many are outraged that Nestle is taking their water, it is hard to determine who actually owns Canada’s water.
Put simply, Canada technically has the right to sell their water to whoever they please due to the Natural Resources Transfer Act put into place in 1930. With this act, the provinces own the water. But on another note, “water is also supposed to be regulated by the federal government, which is responsible for the natural environment and Canada’s waterways” (Shimo). This means that legally the federal government is required to speak with First Nations before natural resources (like water) can be taken. So how is Nestle getting away with this? “Legal ambiguity” (Shimo), as Shimo puts it.
Nestle pays Ontario $390.38 (US) per million litres, yet they pay nothing to the Six Nations. As a result, “the Six Nations are suing the province, in a case before the superior court of Ontario” (Shimo). Many other companies do not use spring water and instead use filtered tap water, which is why many issues arise with this company. While the government is working on fixing these issues, making some changes to things, it is still not fully improved. Although permits are expired, these companies are still illegally extracting water from the First Nations of Canada. These Native American groups are also attempting to make efforts towards providing clean water for those living on the reservation, so that water is not an everyday issue. This might give those Native groups more of an edge against the companies when they are using the water that is being taken from Canada.
A quote that really stuck out to me was “With the election of Justin Trudeau, the tide seemed to shift somewhat. The prime minister promised to improve First Nations prosperity and solve the bad water issue on indigenous reserves by March 2021” (Shimo). It gives me hope for the Six Nations future. Overall, the treatment is unfair and does not follow procedure. To end this post, I would like to give a final quote about this situation. It is as follows “For Thomas, the inequality between indigenous people’s access to drinking water and everyone else didn’t start with water, but far earlier, with land displacement and colonialism” (Shimo). It is a sad reality, but racism is still a constant battle and this is still a work in progress.
Works Cited
Molloy, Parker. “How Nestlé Is Using a Native American Tribe’s Land to Get Away with Draining California Dry.” Upworthy, April 22, 2015. https://www.upworthy.com/how-nestl-is-using-a-native-american-tribes-land-to-get-away-with-draining-california-dry.
Shimo, Alexandra. “While Nestlé Extracts Millions of Litres from Their Land, Residents Have No Drinking Water.” The Guardian, October 4, 2018, sec. Global. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-six-nations-nestle-running-water.
Wolf, White. “Six Nations of the Grand River Challenges Nestle’s Plan to Keep Taking Water from Its Territory.” White Wolf. Accessed April 19, 2019. http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2018/01/six-nations-of-grand-river-challenges.html
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