Coca-Cola under fire in India
Coke accused of distributing hazardous waste
for use as ‘fertilizer’ to farmers
By D. Rajeev
Thiruvananthapuram, India, Aug. 7 (IPS)— Global
beverage giant Coca-Cola’s operations in India have been hit by
more trouble, after government laboratories supported findings that
its bottling plant in southern Kerala state has been distributing toxic,
cadmium-laden sludge to local farmers for use as ‘fertilizer.’
The chairman of the Kerala Pollution Control Board (KPCB), Paul Thachil,
wants an immediate stop to the distribution of “hazardous waste,”
to farmers, which environmental protection groups say has contaminated
water in a vast area of Plachimada village in the state’s Palghat
district.
Thachil on Wednesday said he was ordering a full-fledged investigation
into the presence of unusually large concentrations of the heavy metals
cadmium and lead in the sludge, produced in the soft drink manufacturing
process and given out for use by farmers.
“This is a serious deviation,” he said.
Fresh samples would be picked up from the company’s 31-acre premises
and the probe completed by the end of August, he said.
For Coca-Cola, the KPCB’s findings could not have come at worse
time. On Tuesday, the soft drinks industry in India, including Pepsi-Cola,
was hit by allegations by a non-government organization that said nearly
all their beverages contain unacceptably large doses of commonly used
pesticides.
Meanwhile, officials from Coca-Cola’s Indian subsidiary, which
had earlier strenuously denied the allegations of contaminated sludge
— first made by British Broadcasting Corp Radio 4 in its ‘Face
the Facts’ program last month — have refused to comment on
the KPCB report.
Thachil, however, said that the company had promised compliance with
the board’s instructions not to use the sludge and also to store
it in watertight compartments, so that it does not seep into the soil
and contaminate local water sources.
The international environment group Greenpeace has demanded that the
bottling plant and that it should be closed down pending the results
of the KPCB probe.
Fore more than a year now, Greenpeace has been campaigning against Coca-Cola’s
Plachimada plant, saying that it was drawing excessive water from the
area and depriving the local tribal population of drinking water
“This is the standard practice in other Indian states as per the
Environment Protection Act. It is surprising that Kerala is not following
this,” said Ameer Shahul, corporate campaigns coordinator for Greenpeace.
Shahul has demanded that Coca-Cola ship the sludge to the United States
for disposal.
Samples tested by the pollution control board showed cadmium levels
in the soft drink product to be four times the permissible level and
touching 201.8 milligrams per kilogram as against the permissible 50
mg. Lead was found to be 319 mg per kg against the permitted 500 mg.
According to the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), bottling
plants mine contaminated groundwater and take advantage of lax laws
on the potability of water used in the bottling of soft drinks.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi have threatened legal action against the CSE, but
Parliament House has already banned all soft drinks within its premises,
indicating legislators’ lack of faith in products made by these
and about 10 other bottlers.
The cadmium controversy is only the latest in a series faced by the
plant since it began production in March 2000. For over a year now,
it has had to contend with a continuous protest sit-in by local villagers
outside the bottling plant.
Banded under the flag of Adivasi Samrakshana Sangam (Tribal Protection
Group), the villagers said that Coke’s operations in the water-starved,
tribal-populated area have led to severe groundwater depletion and contamination
of well water.
Coke has denied these allegations and said that its rainwater harvesting
strategies have led to a rise in the water table in the area. But the
local Perumatty village council, in whose area the plant is located,
canceled the license of the company earlier this year due to overexploitation
of groundwater resources.
An appeal against the decision of the council — powerful in a state
with enviable record of decentralization — is pending before Kerala’s
local self-government department.
Perumatty village council president A. Krishnan has said there was no
question of renewing the Coke license unless a solution was found to
the acute drinking water shortage in the villages, and also to problems
associated with the high level of pollutants in the “fertilizer”
supplied by the factory.
“If the government takes a decision to the contrary, we will fight
it out in the court,” he declared.
Coke and fellow US beverage manufacturer Pepsi also faced the brunt
of a state-wide boycott of US and British multinational goods spearheaded
by Marxist and Islamic groups in the wake of the US-led attack on Iraq
in March.
Disputing allegations of groundwater depletion, Coke India Vice President
D.S. Mathur at a press conference here last week argued against the
“exaggerated reports” that the Plachimada plant was consuming
1.1 to 1.5 million liters per day. Mathur claimed the plant’s actual
consumption was merely 0.62 million liters per day throughout the summer
months of March-June, and 0.46 million liters for the remaining eight
months of the year.
Mathur said that any depletion of groundwater was due to the below-average
rainfall in 2001 and 2002, which averaged half of the normal rainfall
in the state. The company had dug three surface water ponds and a roof
water harvesting facility capable of collecting 27,000 kiloliters of
rainwater, he said.
Coke had set up its 561,000-liter capacity plant to manufacture popular
brands such as Coca-Cola, Limca, Fanta and Mazza at the invitation of
the then Marxist government in Kerala.
The Marxists, who now sit in the opposition, have not demanded the bottling
plant’s closure but have said that the government should ensure
that there is no groundwater depletion. “It is not right for Coke
to use up a lot of water in an area which has drinking water shortage,”
said Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
Endangered Species of the Southern US
A weekly column by Shawn Gaynor
A rarely-seen snail: the Noonday Globe
The western scientific community readily admits that it
has not come anywhere near to cataloging all species on Earth. Estimates
differ, but perhaps millions of species have gone completely unnoticed
to science at this point. Others, like the Noonday Globe snail in western
North Carolina, are known to western scientists, and their is taxonomy
catalogued, but little of their life comes under observation.
It is know that the Noonday Globe lives only in a small area of the
Nantahala Gorge in Swain County, North Carolina. The exposed rocks of
the gorge’s cliff face contain high concentrations of calcium,
which the snails need in abundance in order to create their shells.
This factor has lead to an abundance of snail species in the gorge area
in which the Noonday Globe is found, with 29 documented so far.
It is known that the Noonday Globe lives only on the east side of the
gorge, but it is not known why. Railroad tracks and a road that have
been placed through the gorge have altered moisture levels that are
critical to the Noonday Globe, but that in itself is not an explanation
for why the snail is not more widely distributed in the gorge.
According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, “although the noonday
snail occurs in habitats of a type that appear locally quite extensive,
efforts to find the snail outside of its presently known range have
failed.”
The snail typically lives under logs and leaf matter on rocky slopes
or in wet ravines, all of these areas having a dense forest cover. It
has, however, been seen above the forest floor mulch in wet times.
It is unknown what the Noonday Globe eats, but is assumed that a type
of fungi is its main diet. It is possible that the distribution of a
primary food source is the reason for its limited range within apparently
prime habitat.
It has been observed once being eaten by a carnivorous snail, and similar
species’ shells have been discovered in the homes of small rodents
in the area, so it is assumed that they Noonday Globe is on the menu
also. Not much else is know about its life cycle.
It is known that the snail’s population levels are small; more
precise numbers have not been determined. It is not clear wither this
species is in decline or if it occupies its entire historical range.
Federal protection came for the Noonday Globe after a proposed highway
widening though the gorge threatened to destroy all of the known population
areas of the snail.
The Noonday Globe is a prime representation of the race between an understanding
of our surroundings and the with which species we share the planet,
and the erosion of this system by human development.
Description: The shell of the noonday globe snail is
rounded with five and one-half spirals. The spire (center) of the shell
is rounded and low, or may be depressed. The shell is 0.72 inch (18
mm) wide and 0.44 inch (11 mm) high, and is glossy brownish-yellow or
red. Coarse bands texture the shell. It is most active during wet weather,
and is thought to feed on fungi.
Indian villagers may be submerged by
dam
By Kalyani
New Delhi, India, Aug. 8— Environmental activists
on Aug. 8 called for the immediate rehabilitation of thousands of villagers
whose lives are endangered by the rising waters of a controversial dam
over the river Narmada in northwest India.
A statement issued by environmental groups says police officials are
forcibly evacuating villagers living along the Narmada River —
where the Sardar Sarovar dam is being constructed — in the Indian
states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
“A grim situation awaits more than 1,500 families in Maharashtra
and 12,000 families in Madhya Pradesh who face submergence this monsoon
due to the rise in the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam to 100 meters
in May of this year,” the groups say.
To protest the lack of rehabilitation measures, villagers in the Narmada
Valley are on a peaceful sit-in from Aug. 6. Two representatives of
the tribal communities are on a relay fast in Maharashtra’s Chimalkhadi
and Nimgavan villages.
“...If there is no substantial progress before the next submergence
or flood, then the Satyagrahis [peaceful protestors] will take a different
and more intensified step,” warns Kiran Kumar Vissa of the US-based
Association for India’s Development.
Sardar Sarovar is the largest dam being built on the Narmada. The Narmada
Bachao Andolan (NBA) — a group that has been spearheading a campaign
against the dam — says the government’s claim that the dam,
once completed, will irrigate more than 1.8 million hectares of land
is “grossly exaggerated.”
On the flip-side, the activists hold, the dam will displace thousands
of people from their villages. “The Sardar Sarovar Dam will affect
at least 43,000 families,” said NBA member Sukumar.
The environmental groups, including the Association for India’s
Development, Friends of River Narmada and the International Rivers Network,
have urged the government to speed up the rehabilitation of people whose
villages are in danger of being submerged.
“The state governments have violated their pledges to ensure fair
and complete rehabilitation of the dam-affected people,” the groups
stress.
Activists allege that villagers are also being harassed by the police.
On July 28, the police forcibly evicted the residents of Chimalkhedi
village in Maharashtra. The village has turned into an island, surrounded
by the rising waters of the Narmada.
“The police force destroyed homes, let cattle loose and forcibly
evicted the villagers, arresting 76 people including women, children
and activists,” the groups say. “We severely condemn the use
of police brutality and arrests of indigenous peoples and activists.”
The activists point out that after a sustained campaign, the government
of Madhya Pradesh had promised to resettle villagers who were going
to lose their land to the dam. “[But] it is yet to take any concrete
steps although they have agreed to work with village-level bodies on
land-for-land rehabilitation,” it says.
In May this year, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) — a government-run
body — authorized an increase in the height of the dam from 95
meters to 100 meters.
“This was in the face of abundant evidence that the most basic
requirements of fair and just resettlement and rehabilitation of affected
people had not occurred even at the 95-meter level,” the groups
say.
NBA leader Medha Patkar went on a fast from May 30 after the decision
to raise the height of the dam was made. “She broke her fast on
June 6, 2003, after a faxed assurance from the state government of Maharashtra
that they would give land of their choice to all displaced persons and
families, withdraw the police cases against them, and provide compensation
for all the damage to be caused by this year’s submergence,”
says Vissa.
The NBA stresses that despite assurances, villagers still live in a
state of uncertainty, worsened by a minor earthquake, measuring 4.3
on the Richter scale, that struck the region on July 26.
“No proper steps have been taken by any government,” says
Sukumar. “There is no other option but to fight,” he declares.
In May last year, the height of the dam was increased from 90 to 95
meters. The environmentalists maintain that houses were swept away and
fields submerged in the rainy season from July to September.
The Maharashtra government, according to the statement, had agreed to
pay about $76,000 as compensation to villagers whose crops and houses
had been submerged. “The families are still in the valley awaiting
their rightful land-for-land rehabilitation,” the groups say.
“There is a lack of will in the government to either rehabilitate
all those affected by the dam, or to find alternatives to mega-projects
such as the Sardar Sarovar,” protests Sukumar.
The Supreme Court of India had ruled three years ago that all those
evicted should be compensated with land at least six months before their
villages were submerged.
The groups have urged the governments “to keep their promises”
and ensure the complete rehabilitation of all dam-affected people.
Source: OneWorld.net
