Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Companies Extracting B.C. Groundwater For Free

Several groups are calling on the province to tighten groundwater laws as B.C. is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not charge major corporations for groundwater use.

Nestle is bottling and selling up to 265 million litres of water from the area around Hope, B.C., every year for free, says Sheila Muxlow of the WaterWealth Project.

That’s nearly the size of seven Olympic-sized swimming pools, she adds, and Nestle is one of several multinationals bottling B.C.’s fresh water.

“Outside of the fact that they are draining the size of a small lake on an annual basis without any sort of accountability… this is a microcosm of a larger failure with the way B.C.’s water is managed.”

Currently, British Columbia has no regulation on groundwater use. Corporations can extract as much ground water as they like without any fees.

Muxlow says no studies have been done to measure the environmental impact of draining that quantity of water every year, and not enough is being done to monitor and regulate the extraction of water.

But Nestle, the largest seller of bottled water in the world, says it is acting responsibly and contributing to the B.C. economy.

“Aquifers are not bath tubs. They're water systems deep in the ground that are constantly moving, they're constantly replenishing,” says John Challinor, a spokesman for Nestle.

“We're investing millions of dollars in that plant. We employ 75 people [and] we pay millions of dollars in taxes,” he added.

Challinor says Nestle would be willing to pay for the resource, as long as everybody else did.

The B.C. Environment Ministry says it plans to introduce new regulations next year.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca
Author: cbc

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