This is a David and Goliath true story.
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Stanley (a rural village of 370 residents, 9km from Beechworth in Victoria, noted for its apple and nut farms) for the past two years has been fighting one of the world's largest beverage companies Japan's Asahi Group Holdings and associated Schweppes Australia, pumping up hundreds and thousands of litres of groundwater every week from the town and trucking it away on the only road to be bottled and sold off for millions.
There are no rivers in Stanley - this tiny community is totally reliant on groundwater to sustain their orchards. And in the eyes of greedy corporates, completely irrelevant.
They had no say when Asahi started bottling their water. Despite their efforts they were powerless to stop it. And when residents went all the way to the Supreme Court, they lost.
Stanley is now scrambling to find $90,000 they've been ordered to pay in costs.
How can this happen?
We know there is intense lobbying to privatise our water resources and waiting in the wings, overseas corporate giants.
Seems ironic that as one of the driest continents battling bushfires and droughts we give away our most precious commodity, water.
Time to stand up and ask our pollies the big question - why?
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
May the Force be with you.