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India
1. Transport water from the nearest aquifer that may not be stressed
2. Store water from low-stress seasons
3. Relocate the plant to a water-surplus area
4. Shut down this facility
Criminal Negligence or
Straight Incompetence?
Prior to locating a bottling plant in
Kala Dera, Coca-Cola is supposed to
have conducted an Environmental
Impact Assessment that looks at a
variety of current conditions and
potential impacts if the plant is built Farmer in Kala Dera Shows Increased Electric Bill from Pumping Water from Depleted
and operated. Groundwater
The Coca-Cola company has refused to
share the environmental impact
assessment it conducted for Kala Dera (or any other plants in India), citing "legal and strategic confidentiality" reasons.
However, the Central Ground Water Board of India had already assessed the groundwater in and around Kala Dera to be
"overexploited" in 1998.
The Coca-Cola company started operations in 2000 - two years after the Indian government agency had already found it to
be "overexploited".
Did the Coca-Cola company know that the groundwater was overexploited and still built and operated its plant?
If the company knew that the Kala Dera groundwater area was overexploited, then starting a water intensive plant borders
on criminal negligence, if not criminal negligence itself.
And how could the company, which describes itself as a "hydration" company, not know that the Central Ground Water
Board of India had already assessed the groundwater as overexploited?
Misrepresenting Facts
In reaching out to the media and the public regarding the scathing TERI assessment, the Coca-Cola company has
misrepresented the facts on several occasions.