From the Daily Texan online
University | 10/4/2005
By Naomi King
Coca-Cola
India has depleted already precious groundwater, illegally encroached
on common lands, taken advantage of the absence of laws and used
bureaucratic influence to damage the environment and rural communities
of India, said Sandeep Pandey. The social activist, who spoke on campus
Monday, is a recipient of the Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership,
which is recognized as Asia's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
The
Austin chapters of the Association of India's Development and Asha for
Education invited Pandey to speak and show a documentary at the
University Monday night. The social activist, who spoke on campus
Monday, is a recipient of the Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership,
Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Pandey's central struggle has been against bottling plants in India, especially in the north central state of Varanasi.
Currently,
no law exists that regulates the use of groundwater below an
individual's or a company's property, but Pandey said legislation is
being worked on in India's parliament. Pandey said activists in India
will not negotiate with Coca-Cola because its product is so destructive
to the culture, community and environment.
"Coke is not a product with which we cannot live," Pandey said. "Coke is something that is not essential."
Kari
Bjorhus, Coca-Cola spokeswoman, said the company fosters economic
development with jobs and taxes and makes products for the people in
the community.
"It doesn't make sense to go in and hurt the
community," Bjorhus said. "The Coca-Cola Co. has one standard for
environmental stewardship around the world."
In a country where
water is so precious to the culture, it is not unusual for this type of
disagreement between a company and environmental activists to occur,
said Vijay Mahajan, marketing professor at the University.
"Both
sides are right and both sides are wrong because whenever you have
economic development in a country there are environmental concerns,"
Mahajan said. "There needs to be mutual understanding between the
parties."
According to
his research, a Coca-Cola plant produces 250,000 liters of soda per day
and employs 500 workers. He said an individual producing and selling
traditional drinks, such as buttermilk and lemon juice, can make 100
liters per day, and so it takes 2,500 workers to match Coca-Cola's
250,000 liters per day.
"In order to employ 500 people, Coke has displaced 2,000 people," Pandey said.
Pandey said plants that employ 500 workers have about 300 to 400 daily employees working without job security.
According
to Coca-Cola, a bottling plant was commissioned for construction in
Varanasi in 1999. Bjorhus said records from India's State Ground Water
Department showed that the pre-monsoon season water level in the
aquifer near the plant was 7.05 meters (23.27 feet), which is the
distance below ground to the aquifer. In 2004, Bjorhus said the
pre-monsoon water level rose to 6.75 meters (22.28 feet), which she
said meant total water had also increased.
Pandey disagreed with the water table findings provided by Coca-Cola.
"They
have influenced, fuzzed, the data," said Pandey, who said authentic
data comes from local government and farmers. "If you go and ask the
farmers, they will tell you the water table has gone down."
Pandey
said Ram Jiyawan, a leader in the Panchayat, or village government,
publicly admitted to media in November 2004 that the water table had
gone down 50 feet in Varanasi while he was in office. Pandey said
Jiyawan was later removed from office for letting Coca-Cola build a
portion of its Varanasi plant on common lands shared by the community.
"The real culprit is Coca-Cola," said Pandey.
|
