How do you feel about emerging countries without clean drinking water?

By
Alias884

Submitted on
11/24/2011

Theme : Nestlé Waters and Environment

As you know, emerging countries (Africa, etc.) supply of clean drinking water is scarce due to climate and wealth/technology. The other large water companies are only taking advantage of this. They are taking all their water and making them pay even though they don't have any money. What is your point of view on what the other companies are doing, and what are you doing to help these people?

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Le 11/24/2011 par Jamie's answer
Hi Alias844,

Thanks for your question.

Nestlé Waters is not in the business of large-scale water supply. We work towards providing consumers with a healthy packaged beverage that they choose to buy for convenience, taste, healthy hydration and/or the Nestlé quality guarantee. The great majority of our business is in regions like Europe, North America or the Middle East where consumers generally have access to safe drinking water from the tap.

In terms of clean water access, we believe that all citizens should have access to water that is of sufficient quantity and consistent quality for their daily hydration, hygiene and food preparation needs – the amount of water required is estimated to be between 25 and 100 litres per person per day.

In certain situations access to safe drinking water may be temporarily affected or unavailable, like in the case of a natural disaster; Nestlé Waters reacts quickly to help provide safe drinking water to those that need it. For example, Nestlé Waters donated over 3 million bottles of water to the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Nestlé has also implemented 184 clean drinking water projects in village schools near its factories in South East Asia, benefitting over 100,000 students; and has worked with Aquasure and the French Red Cross on a pilot programme to bring safe drinking water to villages in Senegal. Nestlé also engages in public policy and collective action on water – for example, Nestlé is a founding member of the 2030 Water Resources Group which is involved in the public policy debate on restoring the balance between water withdrawals and the availability of naturally renewed water.

Finally, please note that Nestlé Waters is a relatively small fresh water user (just 0.0009% of global freshwater withdrawals compared to 70% for agriculture) and is committed to managing water resources responsibly. We are also committed to optimising the environmental performance of our products by, for example, lightweighting our bottle packaging.

For more information on:
Nestlé Waters’ commitment to responsible water management, click here: http://www.nestle-waters.com/environment/water-resource-management.html
Nestlé’s work on water, click here: http://www.nestle.com/CSV/WaterAndEnvironmentalSustainability/Water/Pages/Water.aspx