Claims and reality

Published : Jul 28, 2006 00:00 IST

Aman Sethi, Frontline correspondent who wrote "Bottling livelihoods" (June 2), responds to the rejoinder by Deepak Jolly, vice-president, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca Cola (July 14):

Coca Cola has simply used stray sentences in the story to publicise its Coporate Social Responsiblity Programme. However, there seem to be four pointed objections to the story and here is my response:

1) Water Usage: As far as water usage is concerned, the story clearly mentions that Coca Cola consumed 58,285 KL of water in 2005 for a period of 107 days. Thus the per day usage is about 545 KL a day (for the days the plant was operational). All figures were provided by Kalyan Ranjan, Senior Manager at Coca Cola, via e-mail. I have a copy of the e-mail and would be happy to share it with Coca Cola if they so desire.

2) Water Levels: The story clearly mentions that figures indicating the rise in the water table have been published by the State Ground Water Board. However, local government officials came on record saying that, contrary to figures released by the Ground Water Board, the groundwater levels have indeed fallen, and that the State government has drafted emergency plans for revival of dry water bodies.

3) Community Support for Activism: Questions of whether opposition to the plant is local and broad-based, or motivated and biased is a matter of opinion. Frontline spoke to a number of villagers and they all expressed their reservations regarding the bottling plant.

4) While Coca Cola may have got its sludge categorised by the Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board as non-hazardous, the fact remains that a study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) classified Coca Cola sludge as toxic and hazardous with excessive levels of chromium, cadmium and lead (a fact mentioned in the article but strangely absent in Coca Cola's strongly worded letter of response). This report was recently tabled in Parliment, and a copy may be procured from P.M Ansari of the CPCB.

5) Finally, the only inaccuracy that I can spot is the assertion in the article that a bottle of Coca Cola sells for Rs.10 and not Rs. 9 as reported by the company. I apologise for this oversight. However, I believe that the nature of the argument remains unchanged. In spite of drawing millions of litres of groundwater, Coca Cola pays between 3 and 30 paisa per 1,000 litres as water cess - which is a nothing compared to the price at which it sells its beverage.

While one welcomes Coca Cola's claim to be an environmentally sound company, it has failed to respond to the issue of toxicity in its sludge, and to the fact that it gets its water practically free and sells its product for a profit, while villagers battle for water for their daily needs.

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