Communities across India are under assault from Coca-Cola practices in the country. A pattern
has emerged as a result of Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in India. Communities across India living around Coca-Cola’s bottling plants are experiencing
severe water shortages, directly as a result of Coca-Cola’s massive extraction of water
from the common groundwater resource. The wells have run dry and the hand water
pumps do not work any more. Studies, including one by the Central Ground Water Board
in India, have confirmed the significant depletion of the water table.When the water is extracted from the common groundwater resource by digging deeper,
the water smells and tastes strange. Coca-Cola has been indiscriminately discharging its
waste water into the fields around its plant and sometimes into rivers, including the
Ganges, in the area. The result has been that the groundwater has been polluted as well as
the soil. Public health authorities have posted signs around wells and hand pumps
advising the community that the water is unfit for human consumption.In two communities, Plachimada and Mehdiganj, Coca-Cola was distributing its solid
waste to farmers in the area as “fertilizer”. Tests conducted by the BBC found cadmium
and lead in the waste, (which are carceogenic and extremely harmful) effectively making the waste toxic waste. Coca-Cola stopped the
practice of distributing its toxic waste only when ordered to do so by the state
government.Tests conducted by a variety of agencies, including the government of India, confirmed
that Coca-Cola products contained high levels of pesticides, and as a result, the
Parliament of India has banned the sale of Coca-Cola in its cafeteria. However, Coca-
Cola not only continues to sell drinks laced with poisons in India (that could never be
sold in the US and EU), it is also introducing new products in the Indian market. And as
if selling drinks with DDT and other pesticides to Indians was not enough, one of Coca-
Cola’s latest bottling facilities to open in India, in Ballia, is located in an area with a
severe contamination of arsenic in its groundwater.

Destroying Lives, Livelihoods and Communities

Water shortages, pollution of groundwater and soil, exposure to toxic waste and pesticides is
having impacts of massive proportions in India. In a country where over 70% of the population
makes a living related to agriculture, stealing the water and poisoning the water and soil is a sure
recipe for disaster. Thousands of farmers in India have been affected by Coca-Cola’s practices,
and Coca-Cola is guilty of destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people in India.
Unfortunately, we do not even know the extent of the damage as a result from exposure to the
toxic waste and pesticides as these are long term problems. Most affected are the marginalized
communities such as the Adivasis (Indigenous People’s) and Dalits (formerly untouchables), as
well as the low-income communities, landless agricultural workers and women.

The Struggles

The arrogance of Coca-Cola in India is not going unanswered. In fact, the growing opposition to
Coca-Cola- primarily from Coca-Cola affected communities- has spread so rapidly and gained so
much strength that Coca-Cola is now on the defensive.

Kala Dera, Rajasthan

In the state of Rajasthan, the High Court ruled in November 2004 that all soft drinks in the state
must state the level of pesticides on the product label, in addition to the ingredients. Thisunprecedented ruling came only three weeks after a 2,000 strong demonstration to shut down the
Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kala Dera, on the outskirts of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Over 50 villages
are experiencing water shortages as a result of Coca-Cola’s indiscriminate mining of water, and
“struggle committees” have been formed in at least 32 villages to confront Coca-Cola’s abuses.
The Central Ground Water Board, a government agency, not only confirmed the declining water
table as a result of Coca-Cola’s indiscriminate mining of the water, it also faulted Coca-Cola for
creating “ecological imbalances” in the area.
In response to the court order to state the level of pesticides on their labels, Coca-Cola appealed
the decision on the grounds that such an action would force them to compromise with their
“commercial confidentiality”! Coca-Cola also submitted to the court that small traces of DDT and
other pesticides are not harmful “to the health of the consumers.” The court rejected the appeal,
and significantly, stated that “commercial interests are subservient to fundamental rights.”

Plachimada, Kerala

The single largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in India, in Plachimada, Kerala, remains shut down
since March 2004. Initially ordered to shut down until June 15 (for arrival of monsoon rains) by
the state government to ease drought conditions, the Plachimada bottling plant has been unable to
open because the local village council (panchayat) is REFUSING to reissue Coca-Cola a license
to operate. The village council has maintained that the plant needs to shut down because it has
destroyed the water system in the area as well as polluted the area.
The panchayat is an elected body at the most local level in India, and forms the building block of
democracy in India – Panchayat Raj- a model promoted extensively by Mahatma Gandhi. Coca-
Cola, in typical fashion, has chosen to undermine democracy by appealing to the courts that the
panchayat has no jurisdiction over the plant and Coca-Cola, and that it should be the state of
Kerala that makes the decision. Coca-Cola’s efforts to undermine local governance is being
followed closely as the court ruling in favor of the panchayat could set a significant precedence
for local governance.
The struggle in Plachimada is the oldest struggle against Coca-Cola in India and there has been a
24/7 vigil directly in front of the factory gates since April 22, 2002. The struggle in Plachimada
has also enjoyed significant victories. In December 2003, the High court, in an extremely
significant decision, ruled that Coca-Cola HAD to seek alternative sources of water and that it
could extract only as much water from the common groundwater resource as a farmer owning 34
acres of land could. The justification being that the plant is located on 34 acres. Furthermore, the
court held that the groundwater belonged to the people and the Government had no right to allow
a private party to extract such a huge quantity of ground water which was “a property held by it in
trust”.
In another significant action in August, 2004, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB),
acting upon a Supreme court order, directed the Coca-Cola company to ensure that water supply
through pipeline is delivered to the houses of all the affected communities in the vicinity.
While the various court and government agencies are validating and acting upon the community
concerns, Coca-Cola is busy putting more money into a public relations strategy designed to
convince everyone that they have nothing to do with the water scarcity and pollution in
Plachimada and in India.

Mehdiganj, Uttar Pradesh
More so than other struggles against Coca-Cola in India, the communities in Mehdiganj, a
village about 20 kms from the holy city of Varanasi, have more of an uphill battle because the
local and state officials are turning a blind eye to the concerns of the communities.
The water table has declined between 25-40 feet in the last four years, and Coca-Cola has been
discharging its waste water into the surrounding fields, and now into a canal that feeds into the
river Ganges, a holy river for millions of Indian. The landscape is very rural, and farming is the
main source of livelihood in the area. Many farmers have yet to be compensated for the land that
was taken from them in order to build the Coca-Cola bottling facility.
The movement to shut down the Coca-Cola plant has been growing rapidly for the last year. In
August 2003, community members entered the office of the Regional Pollution Control Board in
Varanasi, and to protest their inaction, dumped sacks full of sludge from the Coca-Cola plant on
the table of the regional officer. In September 2003, over 500 people marched to the Coca-Cola
factory gates and were physically attacked and beaten by police and private security guards. In
October 2003, a march was organized from the Coke plant in Mehdiganj to a Pepsi plant in
Jaunpur, about 150 km away. And in mid-December 2003, ten activists went on a five-day hunger
strike in front of the plant. They were supported by fifty people sitting with them each day, and
about 300 people went on hunger strikes of varied duration. And in June 2004, hundreds
conducted a sit-in in front of the state assembly in Lucknow.
So far, not only have the authorities not cooperated at all, they have consistently refused to make
good on their promises of inquiries and investigations to look into Coca-Cola’s practices that are
depleting the groundwater and polluting the water and soil. In addition, the authorities have
trumped up criminal charges against some of the key leaders of the struggle, and issued orders to
these leaders preventing them from “shouting slogans or making inflammatory speeches …
within 300 meters of the plant”.
The communities are determined to close down the factory in Mehdiganj, and the local
organizers have been extremely successful in garnering local support in the area. They have also
organized the community around a new Coca-Cola plant in Balia, about 250 kms away. From
November 15-24, 2004, a march will be conducted from the Coca-Cola factory gates in Balia to
the Coca-Cola factory gates in Mehdiganj, demanding the closure of both the facilities.

so it is a sincere request on my part to all of you…plz read more about this on the net, and explain this to as many people as possible…stop drinking the killer coke..!!!