As you’ve probably already heard, Flint, Michigan is currently in the midst of a water crisis. Children have been taken to hospitals with reports of irreversible brain damage, and the federal government has now declared a state of emergency.
How did this happen? In an effort to cut costs, Governor (Rick Snyder) decided to switch the city’s water supply from one of the cleanest (and largest) sources in the world, Lake Huron, to the corrosive and polluted water of the Flint river. At the same time, Michigan’s Governor was allowing the Nestle corporation to pump 200 gallons of fresh water per minute out of the state’s reserves.
Nestle basically owns all of Michigan’s private water sources, and Deb Mchmoe, the head spokesperson for Nestle Michigan, is actually married to Governor Snyder’s Chief of Staff. She was instrumental in the switch from the clean water supply to the corrosive one. While we are not implying that she knew it was poisoned, we do wonder why anyone would take the risk of switching supplies from one of the best known sources.
Activist, documentary filmmaker, and Flint resident Michael Moore commented on the connections between Nestle and Michigan’s government to The Huffington Post:
[Gov. Rick] Snyder’s chief of staff throughout the two years of Flint’s poisoning, Dennis Muchmore, was intimately involved in all the decisions regarding Flint. His wife is Deb Muchmore, who just happens to be the spokesperson in Michigan for the Nestle Company — the largest owner of private water sources in the State of Michigan.
Nestle has been repeatedly sued in northern Michigan for the 200 gallons of fresh water per minute it sucks from out of the ground and bottles for sale as their Ice Mountain brand of bottled spring water. The Muchmores have a personal interest in seeing to it that Nestles grabs as much of Michigan’s clean water was possible — especially when cities like Flint in the future are going to need that Ice Mountain.
The Nestle corporation has been sued multiple times for its acquisition of private water reserves and for the sheer volume of water it continues to take from Michigan. Corporations like this are allowed to take unethical actions without any resistance from government, and this is because corporations control and dictate government policy. They are never held accountable. The amount of power these corporations, and the big banks, possess is truly out of control.
Below is more on the story from Democracy Now.
