Those of us living in the…

Those of us living in the Town of Erin and Hillsburgh strongly object to the application from Blue Triton (alias Nestle) to draw millions of litres of drinking water for bottling. Local Council voted in favour of Nestle at the town meeting where people turned out in huge numbers to stop it. It is now time for our water rights and those of the indigenous peoples to be recognised and protected.

According to the Low Flow Table of GRCA, Marsville which is within 10 Kms of Hillsburgh, has "Extremely LOw water" right now. What will be the response to these conditions when a large part of the Low Flow Response Committee is made up of golf courses, water bottlers and aggregate companies. Who is going to mandate that they stop drawing water when they all get to to vote? Who is monitoring their assessment of water levels. When cigarette companies were in charge of monitoring the impact of their products, could they be trusted? Asking private citizens to water their lawns less is obviously not going to deal with this. We the citizens and water users have to be protected from these self-interested companies.

Protect our water sources from these industrial groups. These are our water rights, they should not be sold off and controlled by companies like Blue Triton. They are a public good, they belong to the people.

Now is the time for our governments to show that they can see the dangers in the future and protect this vital asset.