But while Garriga and other Catalans have been suffering water shortages in recent years, there’s one group of people that appears to be immune, and even profits from them: the multinational companies extracting millions of litres of water from the very same land. This isn’t just a Spanish issue – across the world, from Uruguay to Mexico, Canada to the UK, many have begun to question whether private corporations should be allowed to siphon off a vital public resource, then sell it back to citizens as bottled water.
The tragedy in Spain makes the country one of the canaries in the coalmine when it comes to understanding the global threat to water security. Can the growing number of angry citizens surrounded by private water plants but left without safe water in their homes force a rethink of how this resource is managed? And as weather patterns change, should private companies continue to have easy access to vital reserves of underground water?
One of two things is going to happen when companies decide they own (all) the fresh water (and people become desperate)
Either the company hires enough goons and/or thugs to keep their “investment” safe through lethal force and scare the plebs away, possibly
employingbribing“lobbying” governments to do it for themOR
The people who are right there next to water sources they are being told to pay more than they can afford to drink from will arm themselves and overwhelm the defending forces with sheer numbers, resulting in an internationally covered bloodbath, kickstarting Water War 1 as other companies rush to beat back any perceived defiance, nations attempt to secure access to fresh water whether it’s on their land or not, and normal people prepare for the worst.
Mad Max?
More like Water Knife
Or Tank Girl
Doesn’t Spain has a national water distribution network?
I live right next door, we’re completely laughed at by the effing spanish (fuck off and keep the Philips for yourself!) and we have an ever expanding network of water distribution and sewage treatment.
All right, time to correct things! Surrender to the real Iberian lords and lets make this peninsula the new Atlantis!!! Without the sinking part!
Of course, but even though it’s considered perfectly safe to drink, the tap water in Catalonia and many other places in Spain is disgusting tasting if you don’t filter it and most people don’t even try, they just lug the 5l bottles every other day from the shops.
It’s a failure at many levels to be honest and nobody in power does anything about it.
No offense but I had the displeasure to taste spanish water (bottled) and it is not good at all. It’s oily, greasy. Just plain foul.
And if the distribution water is not good, then it is not being properly treated.
Maybe this’ll get people to care about Nestlé. You reap what you sow.
Why would this be the tipping point after everything else they’ve done? They’ve also done this exact thing many times across the globe. (Wanted to post an example, but there’s a LOT coming up when you google ‘nestle drought’, so I didn’t want to post just a small part)
Raise up your scythes, defenders of the land!
(From the Catalonian national anthem)
