Why Nestle is one of the most hated companies in the world

Advertisement for Nestle PureLife, a bottled water brand.

We need to talk about Nestle and water.

Clean water is important. It’s a necessity. We can all agree on that, right?

Here’s a problem: when clean bottled water is classified as a human need instead of a human right, it allows giant corporations like Nestle to help themselves to whatever water they find.

Nestle’s former chief executive officer Helmut Maucher said in a 1994 interview with the New York Times:

“Springs are like petroleum. You can always build a chocolate factory, but springs you have or you don’t have.”

And Nestle, when they first acquired Nestle PureLife water, didn’t have those springs. So they began– well– helping themselves.

At the World Water Forum in 2000, Nestle lead the way in defining access to water as a universal need instead of a right. Nestle and other big corporations won out, and government officials around the world downgraded water as a human need instead, meaning it could be commoditized, captured, and sold for profit. Exploited without regard for local populations.

Water is a human right. Stop stealing it from communities around the world.