Plachimada Coca-Cola struggle

The Plachimada Coca-Cola Struggle was a series of protests to close the Coca-Cola factory in the village of Plachimada, Palakkad District, Kerala in the early 2000s. Villagers noted that soon after the factory opened, their wells started to run dry and the available water turned contaminated and toxic.[1][2] Soon, waste from the factory was passed off to farmers in the area as fertiliser.

On 22 April 2002, the villagers, mostly Adivasi, began to protest in front of the factory by blocking its entrance. The impromptu protest continued and lasted for years, by gathering support from environmental groups, local and national political parties and activists. Continued protests and litigation eventually helped the people of Plachimada to shut down the factory in March 2004.[3]

While a government committee estimated the damages to be around ₹ 216 crore ($30 million), compensation has yet to be paid to the villagers.[4]

Background

On 8 October 1999, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private (HCBLP), a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company, applied for a license at Perumatty panchayat to establish a factory in Plachimada. On 27 January 2000 the company was granted permission to open the factory. The firm purchased a roughly 34.64-acre (14.02 ha) plot, which had previously been used to cultivate paddy, peanuts and vegetables. The factory employed 130 permanent workers and approximately 250 temporary laborers. Brands produced at the Plachimada factory included Coca-Cola, Limca, Fanta, Thums Up, Sprite, Kinley Soda, and Maaza. The factory used 500,000 litres of groundwater a day for its production after obtaining permission from Perumatty panchayat, which was later confirmed by the Kerala High Court.[5]

Villagers living nearby the factory started reporting increased water pollution six months after the factory was opened. Accessing water for agricultural purposes became an issue.[2]

The factory had also made a practice of distributing its sludge waste from the manufacturing process as free fertilizer to the villagers. In 2003, a BBC journalist visited the village to investigate the claims made by the villagers that the sludge was contaminated. As part of his reporting for BBC Radio 4's Face the Facts, he has picked up samples of the sludge and sent to the United Kingdom to be analyzed. A lab at the University of Exeter found unacceptably high levels of cadmium and lead in the sludge.[6] Lead is toxic to human development and the nervous system, while cadmium is a documented carcinogen.

Mounting pressure on the Kerala Government to shut down the factory, Greenpeace Campaign Head Ameer Shahul shared the University of Exeter analysis report to the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and to the local media, demanding permanent closure of the factory.[7] Soon, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board confirmed these test results and ordered The Coca-Cola Company to stop distribution of its waste and to recover what had been dispersed in the past.[2]

Protests

After mounting evidence that The Coca-Cola Company was polluting the environment and harming local citizens, the Coca-Cola Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithy (Anti-Coca-Cola Peoples Struggle Committee) launched their protests on 22 April 2002 by blocking the entrance to the factory. Over 1,300 people participated in this protest,[2] mostly Adivasis and women.[1] Scientific tests were conducted on the water by Sargram Metals Laboratories in March 2002 which deemed the water unfit for "human consumption, domestic use and for irrigation."[2] The independent report was backed up by the government primary health center which also reported that the water was not potable in May 2003. Coca-Cola eventually admitted that there was an issue with the water, unrelated to their activities, and offered to provide drinking water to the community via trucks and to start rainwater harvesting programs at the factory and in the community.[2]

As the villagers maintained the protest outside the factory, support grew for the movement. In January 2004, a three-day International Water Conference at Plachimada was organized to bring together activists from around the world to discuss water issues. Two environmentalists, Canadian Maude Barlow and Indian Vandana Shiva, attended the conference and issued the Plachimada Declaration stating that "water is not a private property, not a commodity" but a common resource and a fundamental right.[8]

Results

On 3 April 2003, the Perumatty panchayat revoked the license for the plant. Coca-Cola took the case to the Kerala High Court, which at first sided with the firm, saying the panchayat's claims were unscientific and unfounded. The legal battle lasted years. At times, for example, between 8 and 15 August 2005, the plant operated, but eventually, the plant was closed permanently. In 2018, the factory sat empty with a few security guards.[2]

The case was said to turn upon the legal doctrines of public trust and the polluter pays principle, as well as the legal role of local government.[9]

The wells are still contaminated and water must be piped in from a nearby village. A High Powered Committee has determined that the damage to the community amounts to ₹ 216.26 crores or ($28 million). This figure was broken down into categories of agriculture loss, health damage, cost of providing water, wage loss and opportunity cost and the cost of pollution of water resources. However, as of 2018, no compensation has been paid to the villagers.[10]

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See also

References
  1. Raman, K. Ravi (18 June 2005). "Corporate Violence, Legal Nuances and Political Ecology: Cola War in Plachimada". Economic and Political Weekly. 40 (25): 2481–2486. JSTOR 4416772.
  2. Bijoy, C. R. (14 October 2006). "Kerala's Plachimada Struggle: A Narrative on Water and Governance Rights". Economic and Political Weekly. 41 (41): 4332–4339. JSTOR 4418807.
  3. Kumar, Anand (21 July 2016). "Coca-Cola is in troubled waters (again) for a factory it was forced to shut down 12 years ago". Scroll.in. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  4. Anthapuram, Thiruvan (22 March 2010). "Abstract of the High Power Committee on the extent of damages caused by the Coca-Cola Plant". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  5. S. Anand (16 May 2005). "Don't Poison My Well". Outlook. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  6. "BBC - Press Office - Face the Facts investigates Coca-Cola plant". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  7. Our Special Correspondent (5 August 2003). "Greenpeace demands closure of Coke plant". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  8. Staff writer (24 January 2004). "Water not a private property says Plachimada Declaration". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  9. Raghunandan, Gayatri (20 August 2017). "A Look at the Legal Issues Plachimada's Struggle for Water Against Coca-Cola Has Brought Up". The Wire India. Retrieved 16 August 2018. It is all the more important to look closely at the important issues that this case has thrown up, namely the importance of the public trust doctrine, the role of local self governing bodies in decision making, and the relevance of the PPP.
  10. Basheer, K.P.M. (7 February 2016). "A lost battle: Plachimada victims may never get Coke's compensation". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
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