By Corporate Accountability International – TRANSCEND*
The World Bank has launched a new partnership with global corporations including Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Veolia. Housed at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the new venture aspires to “transform the water sector” by inserting the corporate sector into what has historically been a public service. The new partnership is part of a broader trend of industry collusion to influence global water policy.
Kim Hansen | Wikimedia Commons
The venture -called the 2030 Water Resources Group Phase 2 Entity- aligns global corporations that have major financial stakes in water governance with the World Bank, one of the world’s leading development institutions.
Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has been appointed to chair the Water Resources Group, which has already received $1.5 million in IFC funding. Nestlé is the world’s largest water bottling corporation.
Advocates for people’s access to water point to this as the latest example of water corporations’ efforts to interfere in legitimate, democratic water governance.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 