Activists Challenge Coca-Cola Over Water Abuses

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WILMINGTON, Del., April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Coca-Cola Company's
annual shareholders' meeting today, community leaders, activists, and students from across the country are challenging the soft drink giant for its abuses.
Coke drains water from some of the poorest communities in the world to sell as bottled water and make soft drinks. As CEO Neville Isdell presides over his first shareholders' meeting, activists are delivering powerful statements from a range of communities calling on Coke to "stop stealing water." Meanwhile dozens of people gathered in front of Hotel du Pont with banners and signs protesting Coke's irresponsible and dangerous actions around the world.
"Ensuring that people have access to water is an emerging global crisis. In draining water from communities for soft drinks and bottled water, Coke is an industry leader that threatens this very basic human right. The soft drink giant gets away with these irresponsible and dangerous actions because of its political and economic clout. Our members are joining with people around the world to reject Coke's abuses," said Corporate Accountability International Associate Campaigns Director Gigi Kellett, today at the shareholders' meeting.
The movement challenging Coke's abuses is growing. In just a few months, thousands of Corporate Accountability International members and activists have joined with allies in India to demand that Coke stop stealing water, and start by permanently closing the Plachimada plant, shutting down its plant in Mehdiganj, and paying for the damage it has done to affected communities.
"Mr. Isdell, Coke's practices in India are devastating people's lives. Your lies and abusive actions have fueled outrage and distrust," said Sandeep Pandey, a National Convenor of India's National Alliance of People's Movements, in a written statement delivered at the shareholders' meeting. "When will you take a first step in the right direction, and permanently shut down your bottling plants in communities that have rejected your abusive practices, like Mehdiganj and Plachimada?" Pandey's statement was delivered by Jim Fassett-Carman, a Corporate Accountability International activist who marched 150 miles with Pandey and other supporters in November 2004. The march culminated in a peaceful 1500-person protest at Coke's plant in Mehdiganj, where water levels have dropped over forty feet and farmers do not have enough water to irrigate crops.
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