Now, a water rights tour against Coke, Pepsi

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Even as soft drink majors Coke and Pepsi are finding it hard to get out of the pesticides controversy, green activists have started a three-week long water rights tour against the multinationals.



The tour, to assert community rights over water, was flagged off on Sunday at Mehdiganj in Uttar Pradesh, the site of one of Coca-Cola's bottling plants in India, which is allegedly creating both water shortage and pollution.



It will pass through most places in the state of Uttar Pradesh, some parts of Rajasthan and culminate in Delhi on Oct 3 after a demonstration at Coca-Cola's Indian headquarters at Gurgaon.



The tour will stop both at Coca-Cola and PepsiCo plants in Uttar Pradesh and in Kala Dera in Rajasthan to bring attention to the water shortages and pollution being caused by the companies.



"It's a campaign signaling the beginning of the end of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in India," said Nandlal Master of Lok Samiti, one of the main organisers of the tour, said.



"Privatisation of water, where the cola companies get large amounts of groundwater practically for free, is not working for us. It leaves us without water, and is destroying the lives and livelihoods of thousands of farmers in India," he added.



According to the statement, a recent study of water conditions in eight villages within a three-kilometre radius of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj found that the number of wells that had dried up increased seven-fold since the company commenced its operations.



"The water levels in the wells in the area had dropped 18 feet," the statement added.



Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi were under fire in India recently after Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), found high levels of pesticides in 11 brands of both the companies, much beyond the permissible limit.



While seven states have imposed partial bans on the sale of Coke and Pepsi, Kerala has shut down both the plants of the two companies.



Magsaysay award winner, Sandeep Pandey said the "focal point of the tour is to highlight the miseries of farmers and communities as a result of the extraction of enormous ground water by these companies".



They have also called for a boycott of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products.



"Coca-Cola and PepsiCo's involvement in India cannot be called development. Their activities deprive the very fabric of India - its farmers - of one of its most essential resources, water," said Amit Srivastava, another activist.

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MORE DETAILS ON THE MEHDIGANJ COMMUNITY ON THEIR CHALLENGE STRIKE COCA- COLA

100 days of protest challenging Coca-Cola's abuses have been organized by the Mehdiganj community in India. These protests, endorsed by organizations around the world, including Corporate Accountability International, came to a culmination on July 1st, 2006, when over 700 women and men rallied at a platform just opposite the Coca-Cola factory.

Indian leaders including Sandeep Pandey, Medha Patkar, Uma Shankari and Aflatoon addressed the concerned community. Members of the community highlighted how they are being affected by Coke's irresponsible and dangerous actions. Two leaders of the movement challenging Coke, Nandlal Master and Mukesh Kumar, went on a hunger strike demanding that Coke stop its abuses and that the government respond to the needs of the community. The hunger strike ended at the request of Sandeep Pandey, Medha Patkar and the Mehdiganj community. The leaders and community then issued an ultimatum to the government to respond to the demands within one month. If the government fails to respond, the protests will be intensified with water rights rallies all over the state, targeting the government and pollution control boards and the district magistrate in the local region. The protests ended with the community chanting "Ladenge, Jeethenge!" which means "We will fight, We will win!"