Why should we be worried about Coca Cola’s investment in Gangaikondan?1. The Gangaikondan project is actually a Coca Cola benami called South India Bottling Company Ltd (SIBCL). Coca Cola’s name is intentionally hidden because of the bad reputation that Coke has among communities hosting Coke’s bottling facilities.
2. SIBCL has lied to the public about the quantity of water it has sought to use. While it has received permission for drawing 900,000 litres/day from the Seevalaperi water works on Thamiraparani River, it claims in public that the plant will only draw 500,000 litres.
3. Coke bottling facilities, like other bottling facilities, are very water-intensive. Average requirements of Coke plants range in the order of 10 lakh litres per day – about 85 tanker lorries worth. That quantity is sufficient for all domestic needs of 20,000 people. Of this, 7 lakh litres or 58 tanker lorries will be returned to the environment as polluted wastewater.
4. The spot chosen by the company is very rich in groundwater, as it is low-lying, and falls within an area characterised by healthy underground springs (Oothu). Further, the company has identified several spots for sinking borewells. River water pushes up costs as the cost for treatment is higher because river water is inherently more unsuitable than good groundwater. As a result, the company will, after setting up, certainly go for the cheaper, cleaner groundwater in Gangaikondan. If this happens, water tables in the area will drop. That would require increased investment by farmers, cattle raisers and other well-owners to deepen borewells.
5. In places like Plachimada, Kerala, and Mehdiganj in UP, Coke is blamed for contaminating groundwater, depleting aquifers and distributing toxic sludge as fertilisers to farmers. In August 2005, the Kerala Pollution Control Board ordered the closure of the Coke plant in Plachimada after the sludge dumped by the company was found to contain between 400 and 600 times the safe level of cadmium. Cadmium is a cancer-causing chemical that targets the kidney, blood and prostrate. The indiscriminate dumping of sludge as fertilisers has also contaminated the groundwater in places where Coke operates.
Several Panchayats – including Perumatty Panchayat (Kerala) and Mehdiganj -- have refused to renew the operating license for Coke plants.
Won’t Coca Cola/SIBCL provide jobs? The company claims that it will provide 200 jobs, and that more will benefit indirectly through ancillary services like tea shops and mechanic shops. At SIBCL’s stated investment of $65 lakhs or Rs. 28 crores, that works out to an investment of Rs. 14 lakhs for each job created, including for the coolie work. Most of the investment goes into machinery that do the job of several people, rather than create employment.
In Plachimada, where a much bigger plant exists, the company employs only 100 staff. Not one is from the local area. All are outsiders. The local people get temporary daily wage employment at wages as low as Rs. 40/day. Given the lower levels of education in Gangaikondan, compared to Kerala, the chances of local people from Gangaikondan being recruited as staff are virtually non-existent.
In any case, Gangaikondan residents will have to weigh whether the promise of a few underpaid jobs would be worth it in the face of a certain threat to the groundwater in the region.
Livestock and well-owners will have to spend more for water, besides worrying about contamination.
If we oppose Coca Cola/SIBCL, other investors will not come here?That is completely not true. By propagating this argument, SIBCL is playing on historical sentiments of untouchability, reminding people that they will once again become untouchable – this time in an economic
sense – if they oppose Coca Cola. Coca Cola is being opposed only because of its established track record of spoiling water. Investors don’t care about where they invest as long as adequate infrastructure is available – electricity, water, roads, port or railways etc. Gangaikondan is well set on all these counts. Those who are opposed to the Coke/SIBCL bottling plant have clearly said that they welcome other non-polluting, non-water intensive industries. Indeed, community leaders must actively invite clean labour intensive industries to set up in the region, and also initiate schemes to revive agriculture.
In fact, Coca Cola’s plant is likely to limit the potential for industrial growth in Gangaikondan. Coke will occupy less than 2 percent of the land allocated for SIPCOT, and consume more than 20 percent of the total water allocated for the industrial estate.
Coca Cola is bad, not just for Gangaikondan, but for other communities as well
If there is enough water in the Thamiraparani, why are so many people going thirsty. In Tirunelveli town, there are several pockets – all populated by Dalit people – who don’t get any water despite living virtually on the banks of the river. Coca Cola’s daily requirement would be sufficient to take care of their needs. Rather than supply these people, who are forced to drink contaminated water or walk several kilometers for good water, the Government is assuring water to
make sodas that would allow one of the world’s richest
corporations to become richer.
Coca Cola, as a drink, is highly unhealthy. It has addictive qualities. It contains large quantities of sugar. Children who get addicted to Coke or Pepsi tend to become obese, and are beset with diabetes, blood
pressure problems and heart ailments. Coca Cola is also highly acidic and corrosive. It is used as a bathroom cleaner, or to remove rust from iron. If you don’t believe it, soak a rusted nail overnight in a tumbler of Coca Cola and see what happens to it. Children’s teeth and bones are likely to be affected in a similar manner by the corrosive liquid.
The company has a track record of bad and confrontational relationship with its host communities. In Colombia, the company is accused of involving death squads to intimidate and even assassinate trade union leaders from their bottling units. In Plachimada (Kerala), Mehdiganj (UP), Nemam (Thiruvallur district), Kaladera (Rajasthan), Ballia(UP), Khammam (Andhra Pradesh), the company stands accused of depleting and/or contaminating groundwater.
There is no reason to believe that they will behave any differently in Gangaikondan.
What should you do? Oppose the plant and prevent its construction Pressure local leaders to invite non-polluting, labour intensive industries, and put in place schemes to revive agriculture. Pass a Gram Sabha resolution against the setting up of the plant
