Big Bad Brand #2: Coca-Cola Company

Touted as the most well-known brand in the world, Coca-Cola’s misdeeds in Plachimada are anything but mainstream. In March 2000, Plachimada opened its doors to Coca-Cola to develop a plant in hopes of the beginning of “development”, yet this development was not only miscalculated but contributed largely to the downfall of social well-being to people living in Plachimada.

0.8 to 1.5 million litres of water gone daily 

A concise report by Bijoy (2006), revealed that the Coke plant destroyed the quality of groundwater and contributed to the receding water table in the vicinity. Six bore-wells and two open-wells in the factory compound sucked out “some 0.8 to 1.5 million litres of water daily” to produce 85 lorry loads of beverage products containing 550-600 cases of bottles. The impact was not only felt in the immediate vicinity but within a 1 to 1.5km radius of the plant, citing a change in water quality that was ‘unfit for human consumption and domestic use’.

 

Slurry and sludge or Fertilisers? 

Coca-cola as a company not only dodged responsibility but attempted to sell the idea that the foul-smelling slurry and sludge waste in Plachimada was fertiliser and given for ‘free’ to local farmers. When this was discovered, waste was dumped on the wayside and on land at night instead to avoid public scrutiny. A report by Sargam Metals Laboratories revealed that the “water from the panchayat well contains very high levels of “hardness” and salinity that would render water from this source unfit for human consumption, domestic use, and for irrigation” (Bijoy, 2016, p.4334). Toxic metals, namely cadmium and lead were detected in significantly high levels beyond the acceptable threshold.

10micrograms/litre of cadmium and 65.7micrograms/litre of lead were found in the water samples of a well where said ‘fertiliser’ was dumped. The WHO permissible limit is instead at 3micrograms/litre and 10 micrograms/litre respectively, indicating a highly toxic environmental pollution (p.4334).

Entering the food chain 

Beyond direct environmental pollution of water bodies in Plachimada, other reports also suggested that these toxins could enter the “body easily through the food chain” (IRC, 2006). These heavy metal toxins are not degradable and would be in one’s body, affecting the development or even leading to cancer-causing illnesses.

To what extent of development then do these big MNCs bring about to us, is it truly development or simply development based on our underdevelopment?

 

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