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by anacoluthe 1321 days ago
Nestlé CEO about water: https://youtu.be/TPY64EJcsG4
1 comments

Water as a basic human right is... an extremist view. Wow. WOW. These people urgently need to fall off their jets and yachts. They can be "controversial" on the entire way down they'll be falling.
Statements like that leave me questioning the integrity of the video or its translation. I wouldn't be surprised that people hold such views. When you think about it, most people in developed nations drink water that has been tested, treated, and transported. There is no reason why a business couldn't handle that. We simply deal with that handling through public institutions, in part to ensure accessibility and in part to ensure safety. What does surprise me is that a CEO would make such a statement publicly. Such statements can easily be interpreted (or misinterpreted) as denying people fundamental human needs unless they can afford it.
Peter Brabeck later tried to mitigate this statement by essentially saying that water for other uses than human consumption should not be considered a basic human right, see https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nestle-ceo-water-not-human...

That said, I find that a somewhat weak argument made under public pressure, and I carefully try to avoid buying Nestlé products for many reasons, one of which is the statement made in the video above.