MAB criticizes Nestlé’s proposal of privatizing water by corporations

Published in Portuguese on Tuesday 24/05/2011 – 18:19

A global trade of water, based on the commodities stock exchange. That is the suggestion Nestlé’s president, Peter Brabeck, made to solve the problem of lack of water, which according to him should run out even before oil.

According to the national coordinator of the Movement of the People Affected by Dams (MAB), Gilberto Cervinski, Peter Brabeck’s statement shows that Nestlé and other transnationals want to go ahead privatizing water.

“First of all they seek to create a scenario of lack of water, which has an ideological discourse behind which tries to determine an international price for water. And then generate the process of water privatizing.”

Nestlé’s president’s declaration was priorly given to an audience of researchers, in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. This proposal made on water trading follows the same guidelines as the commodities used for agricultural and mineral resources. In this system the production is made in a large scale and the trade occurs on a global level. The products are negotiated in international stock exchange, which is where the price of each product is determined.

“The interest of the corporations of the food industry in controlling water is essential to control the prices of their products and their profits”, comments MAB’s coordinator.

“These great corporations, amongst them Nestlé, act as an international private monopoly and they have the main goal of controlling the productive process of liquid food,”