Take Back the Tap on Your Campus
The Problem: Corporate control of water on college campuses
Bottled water companies have privatized water, our most essential resource. They are extracting it from communities across the country for little to no cost, and are selling it globally for immense profits. Meanwhile, due to extraction, climate change, pollution, and decaying infrastructure, communities are losing access to clean drinking water, all while these companies turn a profit. The sale of bottled water is an attack on the human right to water. The production and distribution of bottled water causes significant environmental problems and economic inequality.
Corporations, primarily Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but also Nestlé and others, utilize massive multi-year contracts to ensure continued sale of their products, including bottled water, on college campuses. These multi-year contracts are shrouded in secrecy and negotiated behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the proliferation of bottled water on campus has made it easier for campus administrators to allow water fountains and other water infrastructure to decay, reinforcing bottled water as the best and cleanest source of water.
The Solution: Start a Take Back the Tap campaign on your campus!
The Take Back the Tap campaign helps students fight back against privatization and win back public water on campus. What does public water look like on campus? It looks like quality water filtration stations on every floor of every building, replacing old-fashioned water fountains. It looks like reusable water bottles issued to all incoming students and employees, and stacks of reusable cups next to every fill station, with used cups washed at the campus dining facilities and restocked. It looks like a campus store with no bottled water, because no one would ever need to buy water, and an official ban on the sale of bottled water written into campus policy.
Food & Water Watch works with students across the country to stand up to corporations that put profit before people, and advocate for policies that improve people’s lives and protect our environment. Here's how we can help:
- Give you the skills you need to organize on your campus, build broad-based support and promote your cause through campus media outlets.
- Share organizing strategies you can use on your campus
- Provide you with fact sheets, reports, films, how-to guides, and other resources to support your efforts