Source: Greenpeace Aotearoa
Greenpeace says Fonterra’s reported $3.4 billion in profit should be spent on supporting rural communities in Canterbury to clean up their water from Fonterra’s nitrate pollution.
Greenpeace Aotearoa Programme Director Niamh O’Flynn says, “Today, Fonterra is patting itself on the back for making 3.4 billion dollars in profit – profit made through poisoning rural people’s drinking water.”
“For Fonterra to announce this obscene profit, as nitrate pollution increases, is a kick in the teeth for people on the ground who can’t safely drink the water from their kitchen taps. Many of these same people were told just yesterday by ECAN that they are personally responsible for footing the bill to make their poisoned drinking water safe.”
“The first step is to stop the pollution. Then, Fonterra’s profits should go towards ensuring that Cantabrians have access to clean, safe drinking water, instead of lining the pockets of their shareholders and executives.”
Just yesterday, Environment Canterbury “resolved” the nitrate emergency it declared last year, and voted against investigating options to make dairy industry polluters pay to clean up nitrate contamination in rural drinking water.
“The intensive dairy industry has poisoned rural drinking water with nitrate, putting communities’ health at risk. And those same communities have just been hung out to dry by regional councillors, who have opted to put the burden of dealing with that poisoned water back on the individuals,” says O’Flynn.
Greenpeace says Environment Canterbury’s nitrate emergency declaration was an opportunity for the regional council to hold corporations like Fonterra accountable for their pollution – and that yesterday, it failed to do that.
“Yesterday, nine councillors voted to let agribusiness off the hook for their pollution and push the costs of dealing with nitrate contamination back onto rural families. They should be ashamed that they’ve thrown rural Cantabrians under the tractor and given the intensive dairy industry a free pass to continue polluting.”
“In the last year, ECan has approved the addition of tens of thousands of cows to the Canterbury herd. They’ve voted against the provision of free water testing for people on private bores, and they’ve allowed the Government to prevent them from advocating for their communities’ access to safe drinking water.”
“Environment Canterbury has a bare minimum responsibility to continue advocating for its constituents, and to ensure that nitrate contamination is stopped at the source. Right now, it’s doing neither.”