Water and Communit y Health
67
Industry takes a community’s water
Plachimada is a small village in the south of India where farmers
grow rice and coconuts. Farmers used to make a good living there
because there was plenty of rain and good soil. But a few years ago
this began to change after the Coca-Cola company built a bottling
factory on the edge of the village.
The company drilled deep wells to get to the groundwater they needed to
bottle the sugary drink. Every day the factory used 1½ million liters of water.
2 years after the factory opened, the villagers’ crops were dying and their
household wells were drying up. When they cooked rice, it turned brown and
tasted bad. When they drank or bathed in the water, they suffered skin rashes,
hair loss, pain in the joints, weak bones, and nerve problems. They learned
that the company had polluted their groundwater with toxic chemicals. To
protect their health, the villagers started collecting water far from their homes.
One year, the rains didn’t come at all. But the Coca-Cola company
continued to take water during the drought. Villagers watched as trucks left
the factory day after day, carrying away the precious liquid that once gave life
to them and their crops. Even sources away from the village dried up. As more
and more people began to get sick, they gathered together to talk about how
they could get the Coca-Cola company to stop taking their water.
After the meeting, more than 2,000 peaceful protestors marched to the
Coca-Cola factory and demanded the company leave and pay the villagers
for the loss of their water. The company responded by sending a truckload
of water to the village every day. But this was not enough water to meet the
villagers’ needs. After 50 days of protests, police arrested 130 women and
men. Months later, 1,000 people marched to the factory and again the police
arrested many of them.
The struggle caused hardships for the people of Plachimada, but it
also brought them together to demand respect of their right to safe water.
After several years, the local government began to support the people
and ordered the company to stop using groundwater in times of drought.
But the state government said the company should be allowed to continue
using groundwater. The conflict went to court where finally the people of
Plachimada won the case and the Coca-Cola factory was closed.
When the people of Plachimada fought for their right to water, their
campaign received attention throughout India and the world. Their struggle
has inspired many others. In a world where people do not have enough safe
drinking water, it makes no sense to use this limited resource to produce sweet
luxury drinks, especially if a factory’s use of the water makes people sick.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012