Water row hits Coca Cola in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: As many as 18 villages in Varanasi district have accused a Coca Cola bottling plant of extracting water from the ground and creating a water scarcity in the area.

The villages, located in Mehndiganj area of Varanasi, which is also the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claim that they have been facing water shortage since 1999 when the plant began operations.

According to reports, Amit Srivastava, of the California-based India Resource Center which is supporting the villagers’ demand, said that, “Coca -Cola paints a pretty picture of itself internationally as a responsible user of water, but the reality in India is that it exploits groundwater at the expense of the poor, the women, children, farmers and livestock who have to live with less water because Coca-Cola mines groundwater in a water scarce area for profit”.

The population in the affected village in Mehndiganj is dependent on agriculture and relies on groundwater to meet most of their daily need.

Mr Srivastava said the 18 village heads had written to State Pollution Control Board, which granted a license to Coca-Cola, urging authorities to prohibit the company from extracting any more groundwater in the area.

He also pointed to recent data released by the Central Ground Water Authority which declared the area where the bottling plant in located, as ‘over exploited’ in 2011.

Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Ltd., however, issued a statement saying a 2012 study by another authority — Central Ground Water Board into a complaint by villagers of ponds, wells and hand pumps drying up, found no evidence that the company was responsible.