Update: On July 2016, 60 concerned Kiwis delivered 40,000 petition signatures to the Ashburton District Council to oppose the corporate buyout of water in the Canterbury Plains. The Council was holding firm on its decision -- but thanks to you it just backed out of the sale. Our water is safe! Check out our big win here: https://actions.sumofus.org/a/victory-for-nz-s-water

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A council in the drought-prone Canterbury Plains just sold the rights to extract 45 litres of water a second. And it won’t say for how much -- or to whom (Update: The buyer has now been revealed as the newly incorporated "NZ Pure Blue".)

The only thing local residents know is that a corporation will drain 40 billion litres of the purest artesian water from their aquifers over the next 30 years. Their council made the sale with no consultation from ratepayers or the local iwi Ngai Tahu.

Local council elections are just six months away. That means the elected officials behind this backroom deal are extremely vulnerable to public pressure. This water will be simply siphoned off, bottled and shipped abroad for massive corporate profit. We can’t let that happen.

Tell the Ashburton council to call off its secret backroom deal to suck the Canterbury Plains dry.

No one has fought corporate water theft across the globe like SumOfUs. We made front-page news in Canada when Nestlé was taking public water for pennies a gallon and forced the government to re-write its water legislation. After a quarter million of us denounced another water grab in the United States, we earned Oregon a public review. We are actively fighting Nestle in California and Flint, Michigan too.

So, if enough of us raise our voice here, you better believe we can stop this sale.

One councillor has already broken ranks. The people of Ashburton will not "be thanking us in 30 years’ time,” said councillor Ken Cutworth, “for allowing people to almost suck water out with impunity.” It’s bad enough that the council thinks nothing of draining this nationally treasured resource -- but the secrecy of the deal and lack of consultation is unconscionable.

Join us and demand the Ashburton District Council to save Canterbury’s water for future generations.

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