Abstract

Message in a Bottle

The article focuses on the presence and environmental impact of a Coca-Cola plant in India. On one side of the street was the Coca-Cola plant, among the company's largest in Asia, and on the other a shack filled with locals eager to impart the news that they were now, as of April 2, 2005, in Day 1,076 of their struggle against the plant. Coca-Cola came to India in 1993, looking for water and markets in a country where 170 million people have no access to drinking water, with shortages growing daily. Coca-Cola bought a property, built a plant, sank six bore wells and commenced operations in March 2000. Within six months the villagers saw the level of their water drop sharply, and the water they did draw was awful. When the plant was running at full tilt, eighty-five truckloads rolled out of the plant gates, all containing the town's prime asset, water, now enhanced in cash value by Coca-Cola's infusions of its syrups. The locals will not let the plant reopen, to the consternation of the present pro-Coke government, which has tried, unconstitutionally, to overrule the local council and hopes the courts will grease Coca-Cola's wheels.