Ashburton council reneges on controversial water bottling deal

By Pattrick Smellie
July 11 (BusinessDesk) - The Ashburton District Council has reneged on its deal to sell commercial land to a Chinese-controlled company that planned to bottle South Island water for export in an initiative that excited strong local opposition.
South Island news media and the Green Party are reporting the council pulled out of the controversial deal at a meeting last week that was closed to the public, citing as a reason for withdrawal a concern that the company could not assure it that the exported water would leave th...
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