Didier Thouvenin is a farmer in Vittel, France
-- home to one of Nestlé's massive water-guzzling projects.
Together with other whistleblowers, he exposed that
Nestlé was illegally dumping huge amounts of plastic and
chemical waste, forcing it to admit to creating NINE massive dumping
sites.
But instead of cleaning up the mess and apologizing to local
residents, Nestlé filed a legal complaint against Didier for
trespassing! We know it won’t stop there -- there were 11
other activists with Didier that day and Nestlé is famous for doing
everything they can to silence opposition to protect its
profits.
Didier just told us he URGENTLY needs to secure a lawyer
to fight back. If enough of us chip in, we can create a
legal defense fund for Didier and other brave activists standing up
to Nestlé... can you help?
If
you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation
will go through immediately:
Here’s what happened: in 2014, Didier and other local activists
entered a field owned by Nestlé through an open fence, then dug a
hole to find waste that was illegally and secretly buried
underground. They filmed the whole operation, filled the hole, and
left without causing any damage.
As a result of their bravery, even more dumping sites were
revealed -- putting Nestlé on the defensive. But now instead
of taking responsibility -- Nestlé is coming after
Didier!
It’s not just illegal dumping that’s the problem. Nestlé pumps
800 million litres a year of precious groundwater out of Vittel, to
bottle and sell for a huge markup. It’s stolen so much water
that the local community now faces a water shortage, all
while Nestlé continues to pump them dry!
But with your help, Didier can stop Nestlé from operating
with impunity. Winning will expose the devastation and help
to finally bring accountability for the injustices it’s caused --
and any extra funds we raise will power our global fights against
water theft.
But Didier is a farmer, in a small, rural part of the country
where Nestlé rules almighty. Without support from our
community he’ll be bullied and bankrupted -- and Nestlé will get
away with stopping at nothing to protect its profits once
again.
If
you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation
will go through immediately:
Our community has been working closely with local activists in
Vittel to fight back against Nestlé since 2019. First, we collected
funds when no one else was to empower them to organize. And last
year, when Nestlé tried to force the local community to
build a pipeline to bring more water to the area, SumOfUs joined
forces with local groups and killed the project. This is
the next stage in our fight to protect our water from corporate
grabs -- let’s win again!
