India: Everything Gets Worse With Coca-Cola
PLACHIMADA, India – In the end it was the ‘generosity’ of Coca-Cola in distributing cadmium-laden waste sludge as ‘free fertilizer’ to the tribal aborigines who live near the beverage giant’s bottling plant in this remote Kerala village that proved to be its undoing.
On Friday, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ordered the plant shut down to the jubilation of tribal leaders and green activists who had focused more on the ‘water mining’ activities of the plant rather than its production of toxic cadmium sludge.
”One way or another, this plant should be shut down and the management made to pay compensation for destroying our paddy fields, fooling us with fake fertilizer and drying out our wells,” Paru Amma, an aboriginal woman who lives in this once lush, water-abundant area, told IPS.
Chairman of the KSPCB, G. Rajmohan, said the closure was ordered because the plant ”does not have adequate waste treatment systems and toxic products from the plant were affecting drinking water in nearby villages” and that the plant ”has also not provided drinking water in a satisfying manner to local residents”.
Apparently, the generosity of the Coca-Cola plant was limited to distributing sludge and waste water free and did not extend to providing drinking water to people seriously affected by its operations.
In a statement Saturday, Coca-Cola said it was ”reviewing the order passed by the chairman of the Pollution Control Board, Kerala state,” and that ”going forward, we are in the process of evaluating future steps, including a judicial review”.
The KSPCB closure order is only the latest episode in a see-saw battle between Coca-Cola and the impoverished but plucky local residents ever since the Atlanta-based company began operating its 25 million-dollar bottling plant in this village, located in the state’s fertile Palakkad district, in 2001.
Along the way, pollution control authorities, political parties, the judiciary and global environmental groups, starting with Greenpeace International, became involved in the dispute and Plachimada grew into a global symbol of resistance by local people to powerful trans-national corporations trying to snatch away their water rights.
That’s why I don’t drink it…..
3 Responses
Does this explain why Indian customer service is so distorted?! ( I must state that I own shares in Cocacola and I have earned a fair dividend, and I love the taste of the beverage.) I shall pray for my sins and the sins of the beverage giants board of directors. I shall tithe this quarters divided to my church.
Randy Carver
Author and Journalist
Coca Cola is very busy company. They are being sued in Colombia for involvement in the deaths of eight labor leaders. Investigated in Costa Rica on anti trust violations. Panama fined them $300,000 (probably a bargain) for water pollution. They’ve also wreaked havoc in Brazil, Guatemala (more union leaders murdered), Zimbabwe, Philippines, Canada, Mexico, and several of our states (one, Georgia I believe, for racial discrimination). And this is not a full list.
Not only would my conscience not allow me to own stock in their company, I would never purchase a product from these rapers of other peoples’ resources, and possible murderers. I’m anti-corporate as a general rule, and this particular corporation is at the top of my *hit list.
If I were to pray for anyone (which I don’t), it would be for all of the innocent persons who have been harmed by this evil disguised as a company. My own belief is that ACTIONS speak louder than prayers, however.
Thanks for the informative post. I haven’t had a coke in more than 10 years–mainly because it ain’t all that good for the body that consumes it either. This just gives me another reason to be happy about my decision.
And what’s Coke doing in the schools these days?