Coke battles Indian village for water
Coca-Cola has launched legal action against an Indian village, after residents claimed its bottling plant there is seriously depleting their drinking water.
Coke officials have filed a petition in Kerala state's highest court, seeking an injunction against the threatened licence cancelation by the Perumatty council that controls several villages in the Palghat district.
In its petition, Coca-Cola called the villagers' allegations false and baseless, and said the plant situated in Plachimada village under the Perumatty council is not depleting the ground water level. The company quoted scientific studies purportedly backing its stand.
The state's High Court said it would take up the petition, but set no date for a hearing. Meanwhile, Perumatty council president, A Krishnan, said his office had sent Coke a legal notice to shut down its plant.
He said villages were going without water and that the council would cancel the permission that had previously been given to run the plant. "Coca Cola cannot replace the drinking water in our wells," Mr Krishnan said.
As the legal battle continues, hundreds of farmers at Plachimada are holding demonstrations each day outside the Coke plant in a campaign that began a year ago. Farmers complain their wells and rivers have been drying up because of the excessive use of water by the plant.
Coca-Cola also denies the farmers' claim that a high level of lead and cadmium were found in sludge from a Coke plant. The company had given the sludge to farmers as free fertiliser.
Local farmers grow rice, coconut, rubber and pepper crops. They allege the waste generated from Coke's plant will make their plants and people sick.
V Baby, an environmental activist assisting the farmers, said: "Everything about the Coke factory in this village is wrong. It has depleted the water levels; our wells are drying up and it is dumping poisonous waste across the villages."
