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    More on the Horror that is Fiji Water

    By Mark Schauss | August 12, 2009

    I’ve blogged in the past about why people should not buy Fiji Water. Now a report from Mother Jones shows you another even bigger set of reasons why you should never buy the product. It talks about how the dictators who allow their people to suffer through typhoid outbreaks due to a tainted water supply, are getting their funding from the people who own Fiji Water.

    I for one believe a national boycott of this truly tainted water is called for.

    Topics: Environment, Health, Opinion, Politics | 4 Comments »

    4 Responses to “More on the Horror that is Fiji Water”

    1. FIJI Water Says:
      August 12th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

      Below please find our response to this article as posted on our blog at: http://blog.fijigreen.com/2009/08/fiji-water-responds-to-mother-jones-article/

      We strongly disagree with the author’s premise that because we are in business in Fiji somehow that legitimizes a military dictatorship. We bought FIJI Water in November 2004, when Fiji was governed by a democratically elected government. We cannot and will not speak for the government, but we will not back down from our commitment to the people, development, and communities of Fiji.

      We consider Fiji our home and, as such, we have dramatically increased our investment and resources over the past five years to play a valuable role in the advancement of Fiji.

      It is true that Fiji is a poor country, but we believe that the private sector has a critical role to play to address the under-served areas of Fiji’s development, with special attention to economic opportunities, health, education, water and sanitation.

      First, we employ nearly 350 Fijians in a rural part of Fiji with very little economic opportunity. We are one of the highest paying employers in the country with an annual payroll of nearly $5 million; we provide health care and other fringe benefits; and we have created advancement opportunities for women. There are also a number of smaller, entrepreneurial enterprises that have been created in the local region to supply our facility.

      As an active member of the Fiji community, FIJI Water is committed to enabling positive change by means of social investment, capacity building, and sustainable development. It is important to us that we give back to the communities in which we work and live. We know that Fiji has tremendous potential because we see it realized at our factory every day.

      Part of our investment in Fiji comes from royalty and trust payments paid each year that is a percentage of our total volume. As we grow our business, we are able to contribute more in royalty payments. In 2008 alone, we paid $1.3 million USD in royalties representing 1.5% of gross revenues of our Fijian company. These payments have allowed us to bring clean drinking water to the surrounding villages, infrastructure projects like electrification, kindergartens, secondary schools, renovations of community halls and much-needed health care clinics.

      In addition, in late 2007 we created the FIJI Water Foundation to serve as a vehicle for social investment around the islands of Fiji. The Foundation has played a critical role in flood relief in Fiji, renovation of schools, and bringing much needed health care to rural villages. We have also partnered with the Rotary Club and Pacific Water for Life to bring clean water to 100 communities in Fiji this year. To date, FIJI Water Foundation has invested $600,000 USD, directly impacting more than 50,000 beneficiaries in 11 of Fiji’s 14 provinces. You can learn more about the specific projects we have funded at http://www.fijiwaterfoundation.org.

      With respect to the environmental issues raised in the article, our commitments are quite clear and laid out in http://www.FIJIGreen.com. We are the only bottled water company in the industry to publicly report its entire life cycle carbon emissions. We are independently audited and report to the Carbon Disclosure Project. And we are offsetting these emissions by 120%.

      Land access issues are very delicate to negotiate in Fiji, but the Sovi Basin project remains on track and the 50,000 acres of the last remaining lowland rainforest in the South Pacific is protected now and through perpetuity from logging. The project will pay the local villagers not to sell their timber rights to logging companies. Deforestation of our tropical rainforests is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions. Protecting the Sovi Basin is the equivalent of removing 2 million cars from the highway.

      Our carbon offset project in Fiji includes replanting the rainforests that have been decimated to plant sugarcane fields. Part of this effort includes planting native tree species, such as mango trees, to provide local villagers with a source of income. We are proud to create projects that protect the environment as well as provide for a source of sustainable income for the local Fijians.

      It’s unfortunate that the reporter did not have the opportunity to speak to any one of the thousands of local people whose lives have been impacted in a very positive way because of FIJI Water. Had we known she was in Fiji, we would have been happy to escort her to any one of the 75 villages who have been a beneficiary of a clean water project sponsored by FIJI Water this year alone. She could have visited one of the villages surrounding our plant to visit a kindergarten that was recently built or to meet a local Fijian who received a life-saving corrective heart surgery by a physician we brought to the island.

      The real irony here is that the reporter suggests that buying FIJI Water somehow legitimizes a military dictatorship, when in fact the jobs, revenues, and community projects supported by FIJI Water are strong contributors to growth in the well-being of the Fijian people.

    2. Mark Schauss Says:
      August 19th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

      As a response to Fiji Water’s people, Mother Jones has another article here – http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/08/mother-jones-responds-fiji-water . My biggest problem with Fiji Water is basically, Why do we need it? It is expensive and ecologically perverse.

    3. Clemento Says:
      August 24th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

      Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?

    4. Mark Schauss Says:
      September 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am

      I think that Mother Jones has done a better job than I could.

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