“Amma, I am thirsty.” “Drink some Coke beta.”

This is no urban-centric ad campaign, but an eventuality that stares hard in the faces of some 45,000 villagers of the Araji line block, some 20 kilometres from Varanasi. Water levels in the area have dipped by 18 feet since Coca Cola first set up its plant here in 1996. Compare that to a 1.6 feet dip during the last decade and you know it’s a catastrophe in the making.

Under the leadership of the National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM), the Lok Samiti, a body of concerned citizens which has been fighting to oust the cold drink manufacturer from Mehndiganj, conducted a survey on ground water level and contaminants between July and August 2006. As many as 450 households were surveyed.

Random survey results revealed that 44 per cent of the 97 wells had dried up. Of these, 25 per cent had dried up as soon as Coke became operational in 2000. Also, 86 per cent wells had a water level of 40 feet; by 2006 the numbers had dropped to 32 per cent. Similarly, 43 per cent of the 220-odd handpumps had dried up.

In 2003, the Central Pollution Control Bord gathered water samples from villages around the plant and found concentration of heavy metals, including chromium, lead and cadmium above the permissible limit of 50 mg per litre in five of the seven samples.

The NAPM report said the concentration of heavy metals has gone up further — between 65 mg and 75 mg — in eight villages within a 3-km radius of the plant. Under the Right to Information Act, Magsaysay Award-winner Sandeep Pandey wrote to the Central Pollution Control Board, asking why the Mehndiganj plant was still functional. The one in Plachimada, Kerala, had been shut down because it violated pollution laws, he pointed out.

“The board responded saying that it had instructed the plant to dispose off sludge in a safe manner,” said Pandey incredulously. The cola giant followed the instruction by allegedly dumping waste into the deeper wells, polluting the ground water.

A senior Coca Cola spokesperson, however, dismissed these allegations and accused Pandey of misleading people. But there are more issues to address. Why hasn’t the plant offered jobs as promised to the local population? Why has the land belonging to the Mehndiganj village panchayat been usurped? Why was the plant management taking in employees of certain castes on contract?

Chandrika R, an engineer with Lok Samiti, says their fight is far from over. “We need answers. On September 10, we will start a march from Mehndiganj and take it to New Delhi. Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das and some other film stars will join us.”

Available online at: http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep62006/national191716200695.asp
Coke factory saps UP villages dry
Puja Awasthi
Deccan Herald
-----------------------