May 03, 2016
Water Fight NZ petition draws support
Television weather presenter turned Rotorua bar owner Tamati Coffey is getting an enthusiastic response to his call for overseas owned bottling companies to pay a fair share for the water they take from the ground.
A video he posted on Facebook spelling out the super-profits companies like Oravida can make from free water quickly got 3000 shares, and the petition he posted on the weekend has already got 2000 responses.
Environment Minister Nick Smith is resisting any change, saying the amount of water taken by bottlers was a tiny fraction of the trillions of litres of fresh water New Zealand has available.
But Mr Coffey says it's a travesty that companies can pay a pittance for long term permits to extract as much water as they can handle.
"On one hand we've got all this beautiful pristine water that's coming out of the ground and on the other hand we've got the Government telling us it's OK that we just be able to wade in our waters and that swimming is unmanageable and too much of an ask so we have started our petition, Water Fight NZ, make the export water bottling companies pay their share, if you're going to take it, you just need to pay, that's all," he says.
Mr Coffey says standing for Labour at the last election taught him some political and campaigning experience, but Water Fight New Zealand is attracting people from across the political spectrum.
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