Nestle Profits From Bottling Cheap Water, While Nearby Residents Still Don't Have Clean Water

Flint, Michigan has been without clean water for over two years. Residents are still emptying water bottles in their bathtubs to bath, suffering from lead poisoning, and fetal deaths have increased by 58%. One resident counted 151 water bottles used daily just for everyday needs. To add insult to injury, they are still paying around 200 USD a month for completely unusable tap water. 

Meanwhile, Nestle bottles water for a $200 administrative fee just two hours away. This water is pumped up from an aquifer unavailable to Flint residents, and is sold all around the country. Some of it inevitably ends up in Flint, which is completely dependent on bottled water. "Now, Nestlé wants more Michigan water. In a recent permit application, the company asked to pump 210m gallons per year from Evart, a 60% increase, and for no more than it pays today...The proximity of the Nestlé plant to Flint’s degraded public water supply has some Michigan residents asking: why do we get undrinkable, unaffordable tap water, when the world’s largest food and beverage company, Nestlé, bottles the state’s most precious resource for next to nothing?"

Nestle claims to be a steward of the environment, promoting sustainable water practices. Very few residents of the communities they pump water from seem to agree. For a company that bottles water in plastic, this seems like an egregious claim to "sustainability". 

Clean water is a social justice issue, and community organizations in Flint and nearby Detroit are gaining momentum to fight for clean water, and politicians are also working for change. But they have an uphill battle, and many changes may come too slowly for some.