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DELICIOUS WATER Should we reward a Nestlé executive for bottling the stuff? Supplied
Brabeck-Letmathe a poor choice for honorary degree
Josh Schmaltz
Gateway Writer
Feb 15, 2012
On March 1, the University of Alberta plans to present honorary degrees to three individuals based on their work in advocating the availability of safe drinking water to everyone on this planet. This sounds good on paper, but a closer look at the recipients presents some dicey problems.
Dr. Steve Hrudey is a Professor Emeritus here at the U of A in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. He’s written an extensive list of peer-reviewed papers about drinking water safety, and he was part of the expert panel during the Walkerton Inquiry — after E. coli got into the Walkerton, Ont. water supply and seven people died as a result. So far so good.
Sunita Narain is an environmental activist with the Centre for Science and Environment in India. She has studied a variety of air and water pollution issues, and she directed research to analyze soft drinks in India. She found that most of them contained varying amounts of pesticide residue — leading some Indian states to ban the sale of Pepsi and Coca-Cola products. Sounds pretty important.
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is the chairman of the Nestlé Group, and Nestlé Waters North America, a subsidiary of the Nestlé Group, the largest water bottling company in Canada and one of the largest water-bottling companies in the world.
Something doesn’t quite fit here. Two of these people have done real work to encourage constructive public discussion on drinking water issues. The third guy — not so much.
It’s true that Brabeck-Letmathe was a co-author on a report prepared for the “2030 Water Resources Group,” a collection of banks, agriculture businesses, and food companies. Notable members include the World Bank, the Coca-Cola Company, the Nestlé Group and Syngenta (a Swiss agribusiness company known for producing atrazine — a herbicide banned in the European Union because it turns male frogs into females). But each member is a for-profit company, and together they can’t be exprected to have much real expertise when it comes to good, unbiased water resource management.
The bulk of the report consists of an analysis of water needs for many developed and developing countries over the next 15 to 20 years. Basically, everyone in the developing world is facing very serious water shortages in the near future, and the report highlights how much money there is to be made through selling clean water to these very needy — and very poor — people. There is no real argument made in support of water conservation. Why save water when you can always buy more from Nestlé?
Nestlé won the 2011 Stockholm Industry Water Award based on its contributions to the 2030 Water Resources Group report and by working with farmers to “reduce their water requirements, increase crop yields, and minimize pollution.” Exact numbers and details on how Nestlé accomplished these goals are left to the reader’s imagination.
The people of Mecosta County, Michigan probably wouldn’t be soquick to praise Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe. That community took Nestlé Waters to court after rivers and wells ran dry following the opening of a new water bottling plant in the area. Nestlé lost and had to stop pumping water, but it then appealed to the Supreme Court of Michigan with the argument that the original lawsuit was unconstitutional because most citizens in Mecosta County were not directly affected by the company’s pumping of the aquifers. Nestlé won that appeal and was able to keep pumping water at about half the original rate.
There is nothing wrong with bestowing honorary degrees on people who’ve put their lives into their work in the interest of public good. However, inviting debate on water availability and then heaping praise on a man who makes his living through selling bottled water is hypocritical.
Nestlé and Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe care about making money. That’s what companies do. There’s no reason to expect they care about solving a water shortage in the same way others do.
Congratulations to Dr. Hrudey and Ms. Narain on being publicly recognized for their hard work. It is truly disappointing that their moment of triumph is being overshadowed by this controversy.
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