"Story of Bottled Water" Tells Half the Story

"The Story of Bottled Water," a video from Corporate Accountability International (watch video below), boils down the pitch from corporate water hucksters to, "You pay me a thousand times more for my product than you're paying now. I'll provide a less healthy product that also trashes the environment." The basic point about this video, that bottled water is an environmentally damaging scam, is the subject of a diary on DailyKos by Patric Julliet. The video spends a fair amount of time addressing Fiji Water in particular (and its misleading billboard dissing Cleveland's (quite good - I know because I grew up there) tap water) in particular. Unfortunately, even though the intro to the video says it will detail how through bottled water "we are trashing each other," the video fails to mention Fiji Water's impact -- on the people of Fiji. Paying extra for bottled dictatorship doesn't sit very well on the palate, I would hope. Paying over $8 per gallon for the dubious privilege of stealing water out of the mouths of thirsty Fijians should leave an acrid aftertaste, don't you think? More on Fijian human rights, the problems with Fiji Water, and what we can do about it, below.

This video is quite good about how the whole bottled water industry is an environmental disaster built on the principle of manufactured demand. By the way, shouldn't every student in the US be taught about how to detect this basic marketing principle? If anything, it is too conservative in the comparison between bottled water and tap water: tap water in the US, on average, is safer. I think some of the best parts of the video are the quotes from bottled water companies declaring tap water is their enemy and declaring war on tap water in order to scare people into increasing their profits. On the other hand, I think it's sad that the video didn't mention that Fiji Water is water taken from an aquifer that the people of Fiji have no access to (many don't have access to safe water), and that the company is in cahoots with Fiji's military dictatorship. The company doesn't even pay any taxes in Fiji. It wouldn't have had to take much screen time to at least mention this crucial component of the story. Fiji Water's Role on Fiji For background on Fiji Waters operations, see for example Anna Lenzer's Mother Jones' story, "Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle." It is an excellent exposé of the company, its greenwashing attempts (including how it tries to portray itself as progressive and even environmental). In the meantime, Fiji Water pumps water from an aquifer that the people of Fiji have not been able to access. Lenzer reports from the town of Rakiraki, near the Fiji Water plant:

Rakiraki has experienced the full range of Fiji's water problems—crumbling pipes, a lack of adequate wells, dysfunctional or flooded water treatment plants, and droughts that are expected to get worse with climate change. Half the country has at times relied on emergency water supplies, with rations as low as four gallons a week per family; dirty water has led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections. Patients have reportedly had to cart their own water to hospitals, and schoolchildren complain about their pipes spewing shells, leaves, and frogs.

The corporate tax rate in Fiji is supposed to be 30%, but the company negotiated a sweetheart deal to obtain tax-free status in 1995. Lenzer explains,

Yet the tax break, originally scheduled to expire in 2008, remains in effect, and neither the company nor the government will say whether or when it might end. And when Fiji has tried to wring a bit of extra revenue from the company, the response has been less than cooperative. Last year, when the government attempted to impose a new tax on water bottlers, Fiji Water called it "draconian" (a term it's never used for the regime's human rights violations) and temporarily shut down its plant in protest.

Fijians Living in Fear of the Dictatorship According to Amnesty International(AI), reporting in 2009:

The population is living in fear as a result of draconian measures implemented by the regime. These followed the abrogation of the constitution and the subsequent sacking of all judicial officers and all constitutionally appointed office-holders.

In January of 2010, according to AI, the government arrested a prominent human rights advocate, threatened a prominent union activist, and announced on January 12 that the "government would stop the pension payments of pensioners who are 'dissenters and critics' of the government." The government also banned the annual meeting of the Methodist Church. Fiji Water refuses to speak out against the Fijian junta's human rights abuses. Corporate spokesperson Rob Six told Lenzer, "the policy was not to comment on the government 'unless something really affects us.'" It might help to remind Fiji Water that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Too Many Liberals Duped by Fiji Water's Greenwashing Campaign According to Lenzer, even putative climate activists have been duped.

Two bottles sat on a table between Al Gore and Mos Def during a 2006 MySpace "Artist on Artist" discussion on climate change. Fiji was what panelists sipped at the "Life After Capitalism" conference held in New York City during the 2004 RNC protests; Fiji reps were even credentialed at last year's Democratic convention, where they handed out tens of thousands of bottles.

Fiji water might be in fashion (according to Lenzer, "Manhattan's trendy Carlyle hotel pours only Fiji Water in its dog bowls."), but who should have first access to water, the people of Fiji, or the dogs of Manhattan? By the way, In turn, I wish Lenzer had finished her tale of what happened to her on the island, where the police hauled her in, apparently because they were monitoring her critical emails about the company. A police official threatened her, "'I'd hate to see a young lady like you go into a jail full of men,' he averred, smiling grimly. 'You know what happened to women during the 2000 coup, don't you?'" (I didn't, though there is a little information at the UN High Commission for Refugees site.) Lenzer reports that she was released, she called a friend, and a US embassy vehicle was dispatched for her. What happened then? We Can Speak Out In any case, I tried repeatedly today to reach the water campaign staff at Corporate Accountability International for a comment, but have not yet received one. If you want to make the case that human rights issues should be included in our orbit of environmental and consumer health concerns, please email CAI (or call them at 617-695-2525). Please let CAI know that many of us appreciate their valuable work against bottled water and against corporate abuses, and that the rights of Fijians should not be ignored. More importantly, to counteract Fiji Water's greenwashing and product placement strategy, let's contact anyone seen drinking Fiji Water in public, or any TV show or movie that features the product, to let them know of its destructive impact -- in Fiji and on the planet. Most importantly, you might want to contact Fiji Water and let them know that we won't buy their water at least until they speak out against the Fijian dictatorship and insure that all Fijians have safe, clean, affordable water to drink. Even if they did that, it would still be environmentally destructive to ship bottled water half way around the world. Their phone number in the US is 888-426-3454.

Update 1: from a DailyKos comment: Patric Juliet, under another name, wrote a good diary about Fiji Water and lack of clean water on Fiji last year.

Update 2 in January 2011: Since last March, Fiji Water has been challenged from all sides. The government of Fiji has demanded extra revenue, and they've been sued because of their bogus environmental claims. An article by Nick Aster on Triple Pundit, despite its unsavory greenwashing advice to the company, sums up the current situation well.

(this is an updated repost of diary I originally published on DailyKos in March of 2010.)