Drinks companies are taking water for free in Western Australia, there is a fight with locals over whether they should be

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Coca Cola Amatil News

Schweppes,Asahi,Susan Mcgurk

For decades multinational companies like Coca-Cola have been taking water out of the ground for free and bottling it up to sell. A small Perth community is a microcosm of the debate about whether that should continue.

Drinks companies are taking water for free in Western Australia, there is a fight with locals over whether they should beWater isn't free for most Australians, but as people struggle with the cost-of-living, multi-billion dollar businesses are taking it at no cost from the ground in the Perth Hills.

" asked for water, they were looking around for tanks and I said 'that one's empty, that one's half full'," Mr Lange told 7.30. In a statement, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners said "we are voluntarily ceasing water extraction at Karragullen until we see the aquifer replenishment return to an appropriate level".

"But the reality is that farmers, the community, in our public open spaces, all of us are extracting that groundwater. "Certainly it could, whether it should is a question of the scientific judgement about the state of the water resource, and the political judgement of the minister," Mr Gardner said.The minister said while she was sympathetic to farmers because the community relied on them for food security, it was unlikely she would differentiate them from bottling companies.

 

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