Monday, August 14, 2006
Coke/Pepsi and the water supply
Someone posted a comment asking whether there were any concerns about Coke/Pepsi depleting local water supplies near their manufacturing plants.
I have not heard anything to this effect. Some parts of India are experiencing droughts, however from what I have heard, most of the soft drink plants are located in places that have had heavy monsoons this year.
As an interesting note, Pepsi just appointed a new CEO-an Indian woman who was serving as the CFO. I would be surprised if this decision was not related to the recent controversies about their product in India.
I have not heard anything to this effect. Some parts of India are experiencing droughts, however from what I have heard, most of the soft drink plants are located in places that have had heavy monsoons this year.
As an interesting note, Pepsi just appointed a new CEO-an Indian woman who was serving as the CFO. I would be surprised if this decision was not related to the recent controversies about their product in India.
# posted by Disease Cowgirl @ 11:58 PM 
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060501/blanding
J - The article I read is from The Nation. The section I was refering to spoke about a recent Coke stockholder meeting:
"One after another, students, labor activists and environmentalists blasted Coke's international human rights record. Many focused on Colombia, where Coke has been accused of conspiring with paramilitary death squads to torture and kill union activists. Others highlighted India, where Coke has allegedly polluted and depleted water supplies. Still others called the company to task for causing obesity through aggressive marketing to children." I was wondering about the India piece.
Later in the same article:
"The first rumblings came from India, where villagers near several Coke bottling plants reported that their wells were dropping, sometimes more than fifty feet; meanwhile, the water they were able to get was tainted by foul-smelling chemicals. Starting in 2002 villagers near Plachimada, in the southern state of Kerala, began a permanent vigil outside the local plant. They finally won an indefinite closure in March 2004, although the case remains an issue in the Kerala High Court.
Villagers started another vigil, at Mehdiganj in central India, this past March. Escalating protests there and at a third plant, in the desert state of Rajasthan, have ended in police attacks on villagers employing Gandhian tactics of nonviolence, which Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center (IRC) lays at Coke's feet. "We know the company has the power to stop the police from resorting to violence," he says, "but it has let this go on without saying a word." "
All the best, HB
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J - The article I read is from The Nation. The section I was refering to spoke about a recent Coke stockholder meeting:
"One after another, students, labor activists and environmentalists blasted Coke's international human rights record. Many focused on Colombia, where Coke has been accused of conspiring with paramilitary death squads to torture and kill union activists. Others highlighted India, where Coke has allegedly polluted and depleted water supplies. Still others called the company to task for causing obesity through aggressive marketing to children." I was wondering about the India piece.
Later in the same article:
"The first rumblings came from India, where villagers near several Coke bottling plants reported that their wells were dropping, sometimes more than fifty feet; meanwhile, the water they were able to get was tainted by foul-smelling chemicals. Starting in 2002 villagers near Plachimada, in the southern state of Kerala, began a permanent vigil outside the local plant. They finally won an indefinite closure in March 2004, although the case remains an issue in the Kerala High Court.
Villagers started another vigil, at Mehdiganj in central India, this past March. Escalating protests there and at a third plant, in the desert state of Rajasthan, have ended in police attacks on villagers employing Gandhian tactics of nonviolence, which Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center (IRC) lays at Coke's feet. "We know the company has the power to stop the police from resorting to violence," he says, "but it has let this go on without saying a word." "
All the best, HB
# posted by 
: 6:57 PM
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