Protesters rallied outside a Nestle water-bottling plant in Los Angeles Wednesday, demanding that the company halt its operations in response to the state’s drought.
A simultaneous rally was held at a plant in Sacramento.
Organizers said they had collected about 500,000 signatures on a series of online petitions calling on the company to stop bottling water in California.
“With people across California doing their part to conserve water, it’s time that Nestle did the right thing and put people over profits by immediately halting their water-bottling operations across the state,” said Tim Molina of the Courage Campaign. “It Nestle won’t do what’s right to protect California’s precious water supply, it it up to Gov. (Jerry) Brown and the California Water Resource Control Boards to step in and stop this blatant misuse of water during our state’s epic drought.”
Nestle officials said the company has been responsive to the drought, saying it has “made significant progress in reducing the amount of water used in our food and beverage operations since the drought began four years ago.”
“The entire bottled water industry accounts for 0.02 percent of the annual water used in California,” according to a company statement. “This small percentage by no means absolves Nestle of our responsibility to address shared water challenges across watersheds. Rather, it underscores our desire to collaborate with water users across the state to identify systematic solutions to the current drought crisis that benefit both communities and the environment.”
— City News Service