It seems totally insane to allow companies to bottle one of our most precious resources, water, and sell it overseas at a huge markup without any proper recompense for New Zealand.
Today, the NZ Herald reported:
Not only are these companies making huge profits at our expense, the National party for some weird reason doesn’t want to properly tax them.
That’s one of the strangest things about the bottled water debate… the current government doesn’t want to make money from it. Isn’t the National party full of capitalists or something?
So Kiwi’s wont even be able to buy our own water from Putaruru's Blue Spring. Unbelievable!
NZ Pure Blue is paying the South Waikato District Council a bribe in other words. I very much doubt they have consulted with the Iwi that their plans will affect either.
Many of the water bodies these companies want to suck dry are tourist attractions, which makes the decision to not properly charge them for our resource depletion, which also comes at the expense of other industries, entirely insane!
When will the government and Council's do the right thing when it comes to our environment and those wanting to exploit it?
Today, the NZ Herald reported:
NZ Pure Blue wants to send millions of litres of Waikato water offshore
NZ Pure Blue Springs Limited wants to take from Putaruru's Blue Spring in the Waihou River more than the amount of water currently being pulled from the Waikato for bottling.
In its resource consent application to Waikato Regional Council, it has asked to extract 6.9 million litres a day.
Not only are these companies making huge profits at our expense, the National party for some weird reason doesn’t want to properly tax them.
That’s one of the strangest things about the bottled water debate… the current government doesn’t want to make money from it. Isn’t the National party full of capitalists or something?
The combined daily limit of water extraction allocated by the Regional Council to all bottling operations in the region is 5.3million litres. Coca-Cola Amatil is the largest consent holder of water from the Waihou River taking up to a maximum of 200,000 litres a day.
NZ Pure Blue plans to set-up a bottling plant at an existing industrial site in Putaruru and create the "largest production bottling plant in the southern hemisphere, exporting 100% of its products".
So Kiwi’s wont even be able to buy our own water from Putaruru's Blue Spring. Unbelievable!
NZ Pure Blue said it had consulted with the Raukawa Iwi and discussed potential mitigation measures, as well as gained support of the South Waikato District Council.
A council spokesperson confirmed it would be getting some form of payment from the company for its support, saying it had indicated it would provide an amount of funding in trust to benefit the Putaruru community.
NZ Pure Blue is paying the South Waikato District Council a bribe in other words. I very much doubt they have consulted with the Iwi that their plans will affect either.
Many of the water bodies these companies want to suck dry are tourist attractions, which makes the decision to not properly charge them for our resource depletion, which also comes at the expense of other industries, entirely insane!
When will the government and Council's do the right thing when it comes to our environment and those wanting to exploit it?
