As the Wells Run Dry, So Does Democracy

By MARK ANDERSON

In Australia, when commercial water miners who supply bottlers such as Coca Cola “slurped” the last drop of available groundwater, the Tamborine Mountain State School in the hinterland of Queensland’s Gold Coast literally ran out of water — something rarely heard of.

Local authorities told Mount Tamborine residents that they are allegedly powerless when it comes to giving the people priority over mining and bottling interests, which are “sending millions of liters to commercial bottling operations,” the UK-based Guardian newspaper noted on Dec. 11, 2019.

And try this irony on for size: The bottled water that was hauled to the school as part of an emergency delivery was from the very same groundwater supply that had been accessed for the school’s direct use.

“Trucks sent by the Queensland government carrying emergency supplies to the school, including Mount Tamborine bottled water, have been passing trucks heading in the opposite direction taking local water to bottling plants for beverage giants such as Coca-Cola,” The Guardian added.

Thus, all eyes are on Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham to use emergency powers to prioritize local water supplies over the needs of commercial bottlers.

“As I have previously said, groundwater is not regulated on Mount Tamborine and so my department does not have the power to limit take,” Lynham was quoted as claiming. “I do have the power to limit take in a declared water shortage, but that is everyone’s take, including local farmers, households, and businesses.”

Meanwhile, while Mount Tamborine-area water miners supply roughly 130 million liters of water each year to commercial bottling operations, the local bores are running dry. “The school’s bore is 50 meters deep and has never ever had these issues before,” a local resident said, amid reports that the government is actually buying water back from Coca Cola.

Closer to home, as the media website AwakeningNews.ca has reported over the years, water bottlers such as Nestle have been given tremendous legal latitude in places like Evart, Michigan, and Guelph, Ontario.

In Evart, about an hour south of Cadillac, Nestle was recently granted a water-mining increase up to 400 gallons per minute. That’s 24,000 gallons per hour. In 24 hours, that’s 576,000 gallons. Take that amount times 30 days and you get, 17,280,000 gallons per month. Multiply that over a year and you get 207,360,000 gallons.

Awakening News (AWN) also has warned repeatedly that in Guelph, the most recent available figure was that Nestle is mining water for $3.71 per million liters!

Notably, Guelph University is the source of groundwater-recycling technology that AWN co-founder John Devine used in the early 1990s to develop a fish hatchery and retail outlet (Coldwater Fisheries and Fisherman’s Cove in Ontario). That recycling technology could’ve fully replaced the wasteful, high-volume, pollutive “water-in, water-out” fish-farming systems still common today. Such technology would re-use up to 90% of the water with a mere 10% withdrawal of new groundwater.

But the Canadian government, under a fraudulent process 25 years ago, bulldozed most of Fisherman’s Cove and effectively destroyed a business devoted to applying this caliber of groundwater preservation—which, if broadly applied, would be a long-term insurance policy against the kind of water shortages happening in Queensland.

Certainly, there are big lessons to be learned here. Chief among them is that, like money, water is too fundamental to human existence to be turned over to such extensive private control. Water miners and bottlers are the “bankers” of their realm, securing resources and riches for themselves well ahead of the bewildered public while making sweet soft drinks that fatten an already nearly powerless working class. Bondage can come in many forms under many guises.

Mark Anderson is a veteran journalist who divides his time between Texas and Michigan. Email him at truthhound2@yahoo.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2020

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