OUR APPROACH TO WATER

Allegations Against Coca-Cola India Don’t Hold Water

Allegations that The Coca-Cola Company is exploiting groundwater in India are without any scientific basis and are also not supported either by the Government authorities who regulate our water use in India, academics, or the local communities in which our plants are located.

Countering Malicious Propaganda Against Us

We believe the allegations are motivated more by an anti-globalisation agenda, rather than by those with genuine environmental concerns. Any fact-based discussion of this issue would reveal that there is no basis for the allegations.

• Firstly, the issue needs to be kept in perspective. In India, the beverage industry is responsible for not even a fraction of 1% of total water usage.

• Secondly, the beverage industry is one of the most efficient users of water, out of any industry in India

• A typical Coca-Cola plant uses just two or three bore wells for its water needs and extracts that water with pumps of a similar capacity as those used by other industries and farmers in the same community.

• Within approximately five kilometers of the Kerala plant, for example, there are about 200 open shallow wells. Coca-Cola uses only 2 open shallow wells within the plant. In the same area there are nearly 150 bore wells. There are only 6 bore wells within our plant and the Coca-Cola plant uses no more than 3 bore wells at any one time

• Further, The Coca-Cola Company in India has been recognized for its community programs and environmental practices by prominent global organizations such as the Red Cross and has won prestigious Indian environmental awards for environmental practices.

• The rainwater harvesting technology it has established at many locations (including the plants at Plachimada in Kerala, Kaledera in Rajasthan and Varanassi in Uttar Pradesh).

• State Government figures have confirmed that since a Coca-Cola plant has been built, in some areas (including Kaladera in Rajasthan) groundwater levels have shown lower levels of depletion than other areas and in some areas (including Varanassi in UP) water levels have actually risen since the plants were built. We believe this is due, in part, to the rainwater harvesting technology employed at these plants

• In Kerala, where ground water levels have certainly decreased, the rainfall has been well below average for several years. The Kerala State Ground Water Department has said that any depletion in ground water was due to poor rainfall and could not be attributed to the plant. The Central Ground Water Authorities have also confirmed there were no abnormal changes in groundwater levels around the plant that can be attributed to the Coca-Cola operation. Most recently the interim report of the Centre for Water Resources Development & Management (CWRDM) groundwater depletion and the Coca-Cola plant in Kerala.

Coca-Cola is one of the few companies in India to have made any contribution to recharging groundwater in India and uses less water, more efficiently, than many other industries in India and yet a small number of politically motivated groups have still chosen to target just The Coca-Cola Company, using the Coca-Cola brand name for the furtherance of their own anti-multi-national agendas.