How bottled water is draining our water resources

As droughts become more prevalent across the world, corporate control over our drinking water is threatening the health of our water sources and the access people have to them.

Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores how foreign multinational companies are extracting billions of litres of water from natural aquifers to sell back to the same communities from which it came – for huge profits.

The UN has voiced concerns that as the world relies more on expensive bottled water, instead of improving or expanding public water infrastructure, which will further worsen global inequality when it comes to water access, especially as the climate crisis intensifies.

Water scarcity affects us all, which is why democratising access to our water sources and maintaining their health is so important. More than 2 billion people globally rely on groundwater for their drinking needs. And while the biggest source of groundwater depletion is agriculture, large volumes taken by the bottled water industry can add extra pressure to an already depleted water source.

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[ItsComplicated]

Sources:

‘It’s not drought - it’s looting’: the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water

Foreign firms taking billions of litres from UK aquifers to make bottled water

‘It’s pillage’: thirsty Uruguayans decry Google’s plan to exploit water supply

‘It’s plunder’: Mexico desperate for water while drinks companies use billions of litres

The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America's water to sell in plastic bottles

Why Bottled Water Comes From California, Which Can't Spare Much

Nestlé plan to take 1.1m gallons of water a day from natural springs sparks outcry

While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water

United Nations Development Programme - Fiji Water Supply, Sanitation And Hygiene

Mother Jones - Fiji Water investigation

Fiji politicians discuss Fiji Water taxation

Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad

Environmental impact of bottled water ‘up to 3, 500 times greater than tap water’

How the Bottled Water Industry is Masking the Global Water Crisis

Global Bottled Water Industry: A Review of Impacts and Trends

[CallMeRabbitzUSVI]

I knew bottling water was a problem here in the states but I didn't think that it was such a HUGE problem in th EU and Europe as well.

We are really mismanaging our planet 😢 And in 50 years time I can't imagine how we will be able to lead normal lives. I fear we will quickly lose our humanity and what makes living worth living.

[SvalbardSleeperDistrict]

Logical outcome of capitalism. I don't know what else anyone expected.

[loctruong]

Interesting. The Fiji government got a 2.5% tax for each 1L bottle the company sells in Vietnam. I am not sure how much compared to the US market. The number is so small.

[acash]

Well, if why isn't there a clause that allows government restriction quotas on private water production?

[acash]

Why isn't the EU stopping this, just as how it has protected consumers from digital exploitation?

[Paul-lihq]

This is the problem with commercialism and capitalism... everything is eventually viewed as a simple business resource with the point of maximising profit.

[rubenverheij]

0:13 Eucalyptus* plantage
is (also) part of the problem
in south of Europe. The local
wildlife is dying of thirst, and
it cause many of wildlife fires.

(*Eucalyptus trees belong in
Australian desert! Not in Eu!)

Ps. Roots of Eucalyptus tree
goes deep, local wildlife not.
And, Eucalyptus tree drinks
a lot of water. And because
of that, farmers in the area
need to WATER their crops.
That cause even more of a
water shortage in the area!

There 're ppl who start fires
in wildlife. It's on camera! It
is discovered, that these ppl
who started fires, worked on
Eucalyptus plantage. Reason
why they started the fires in
the wildlife. Wildlife in south
of Eu is protected, but areas
without forest not. If it's no
longer forest/wildlife, it can
be bought from Government.

It happened, Eucalyptus trees
were (secretly) planted inside
the wildlife forest. Eucalyptus
trees killed all life in forest. A
dead forest is extremely dry.
But also extremely flammable!!
Only survivor after forest fire,
are the Eucalyptus trees that
were secretly planted among
the local European trees! New
plantage is sneakily created!!

Pps. I hope this is not longer
the case. Info I shared, came
from the 90s, when I still was
active as an environmentalist.

[allotment]

Unless we are told the percent of the licensable water in an area bottle water uses it is very hard to know if this is a significant issue. This video was too light on facts