Ascencio 1

Rosaisela Ascencio
Professor Santosh
English 113B
29 April 2016
How does your Coke taste now?
Many individuals are unaware of real world issues simply because it has not yet affected
them directly. Water scarcity is a world issue that the world faces everyday, mostly suffered by
third world countries in poor rural areas. In fact, it is because of third world countries that rural
undeveloped areas suffer such global crisis. For instance, a bottle of Coke, sounds refreshing
right? What does a simple everyday soft drink have to do someone else across the world? Well
people who make our soft drink are being affected drastically by getting their water aquifers
taken over by first world countries such as the U.S. Although Coke satisfies our cravings with its
delicious taste it is also harming our environment in rural areas, which are being taken advantage
due to to taking over its water aquifers and keep up with consumers demand.
In the year 2000 the Coca Cola company established a bottling plant in India in a small
rural village known as Plachimada in Kerala. The small village is known because of its rich,
healthy soil used to harvest crops, people need in order to survive. When the people of
Plachimada began to experience trouble fetching fresh water they started informing themselves
about what was causing the less water in their local wells. In the book Anthropology in a Global
Age: Cultural Anthropology a Toolkit for a Global Age states, But according to local official,
when the company began to drill more wells and install high-powered pumps to extract
groundwater for the factory, the local water table fell dramatically- from 45 meters (147.5 ft.)
below the surface to 150 meters (492 ft.), far more than could be explained by periods of limited

Ascencio 2
rainfall (Guest P6). A great impact India had to face was have water extracted from their wells,
tremendous amount of water that was being extracted for the bottling plant in Plachimida. The
private company now was taking away a resource from the land which and causing water
scarcity. Without care the bottling company was taking away a natural resource from this rural
area to meet their demand.

Figure 1: "Campaign to Stop Killer Coke | Coke's Crimes in India." Campaign to Stop
Killer Coke | Coke's Crimes in India. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2016
The figure above is a cartoon of an Indian women being surprised by a white man who
seems to be bigger in the picture stating its power. The scene appears to be in an unindustrialized
area due to the small house in the made out of straw and a women fetching the water from a well.
There is a man in a suit with a tie shaped into a coca cola bottle who seems to be drinking out of
a white and red straw. The Coca Cola bottle tie implies how the white man is a symbol of the
Coca Cola bottle industry stealing water from a third world country. On the second half of the
picture there is a map which has a sign on Kerla State where the event of Coke vs India occurred.
In the map we can see how Southern India is divided and the shaded region that was affected by
the Coke industry. The picture above shows how it was like for the people of India to experience
some foreign superior country to come and take over their water. Besides being from a foreign

Ascencio 3
country it didnt limit the man to stop extract water, instead it seems to permanently establish
himself there on the well quench his thirst. Furthermore, the picture is sending a message that
says that the Coca Cola company is established there without a care of who sees what it doing to
fulfill its greed of production.
Thousands of women would walk about more than five kilometers in search of fresh
water. These women gather together and convince worker to protest against the Coca Cola
company to stop stealing their water. According to the video Coke Bottling Plant in India" a
worker named Prithee Persad, who was a technician at the bottling plant, was unaware of the
effects that the factory was having over India. He states that after watching local news he found
out about the crucial reality of how the bottling plants toxic waste was affecting peoples
harvest. The supplies he would see coming into the plant facility were sugar, syrup, and
American executives, but never water. The Coca Cola company was denying the use of the
peoples water but in reality it was extracting water so extensively. After protesting against the
bottling planta Prithee Persad was fired and escorted out by security. The sad reality about Persad
was that he was left as an unemployed married man with twelve children just to protest for the
benefit of his community and land. Several people believe that Coca Cola within other soft
drinks just come from a factory are unaware of the causes before or after its production. It is
unfair for the people of the small village to get their water aquifer taken over by a foreign
country in order to produce their product knowing that the community needs their water to
survive and their needs.

Ascencio 4

The figure above has a picture of a giant Coke poster captioning it Poison Coke.
Protestors look furious and decide to light the poster while they walk down the street. There is a
lot of significance in this picture because there is a man in the back with his hand out
symbolizing the sign of STOP as he continues to walk. There is support on both sides of the
gender type female and male. As we can see several people are yelling and the poster is lit on
fire. The message being stated here is that the Coca Cola bottling plant should be burned down to
get rid of its existence. Several people protested for their land even though they were jobless
like the ex employer about Prithee Persad, who we learned about in our previous source. Not
only were people angered by what the company was doing to their crops but the waste and water
remaining was no longer available for use. People complained about taking showers due to the
harsh chemical, it would make their bodies itch. Nevertheless, the fact that if these people would
drink the water it would affect their health. A place such as Plachimada cannot afford to lose one
of their natural resources, the village is not yet industrialized and has not plan incase an event
like this happens. The people have no other choice but to fight for their birth right and natural

Ascencio 5
resource that has been taken away by foreigners. Villagers live of of what their environment
produces and is completely unfair for another country who feels superior to come and destroy
their peace to simply please their demands.
I interviewed one of my friends, Raja Birs, whose father was involved in the protest
movement to help out the people of Plachimada in the year 2008. His father is an anthropologist
whose name is confidential. I asked him some brief questions about the case going on in
Plachimada he confesses that the bottling plant had left severe damage to the land. He also states
that the only thing the Coca Cola company tried and compensate people by giving some of
their water back. After been in the public eye the Coke bottling plant had to do something to
deny them taking thousands of gallons of water everyday. To gain its credibility with the media
and villagers they decided to allegedly give a few galloons back. At a certain hour each day a car
with a filled water tank would fill up local peoples buckets of water. Birs father mentions that
the water given out was a limit of two buckets per person. The water given to each family was
not enough to cook, shower, clean, or drink. While the Coca Cola company thought that it was
compensating for the damages being done to the village it only proved how it had total control of
the villages water. The company did not acknowledge the fact but kept fulfilling its greed
feeding what was rest of the poor land to satisfy their business.
Besides having a great impact on water scarcity the Coca Cola company had other
environmental effects on the land. The ingredients that were used in the India bottling plants
contained pesticides strong enough to be used as pesticides as well as kill it for its strong
chemicals in it. According to the video White Blower-Except it goes over some of the
pesticides found inside the drink the Coca Cola bottle plant produces. One of the chemicals being
used is Lindane which is a deadly insecticide use in the radiation for mosquitos and head lies.

Ascencio 6
Other pesticides such as DDT, which was used in World war two, helped control plagues. Even
though DDT was banned it is one of Cokes main ingredients for their soft drinks. Chlorpyrifos
is found in most soft drink products which can cause death because it can cause respiratory
paralysis. Besides having health risk due to the ingredients inside coke, it harms harms our
environment harshly. Once these pesticides are use for coke production the remaining water mix
with these ingredients turns into waste. People are no longer able to use it to drink or to water
their crops since it strong it dries out the harvest. There is also other chemical in this product
which are not only harming the environment but our bodies. Chemicals that produce addiction
for this product and make consumers demand rise. The company is careless whether a product is
good or bad it only care about making money and not caring about what effects it has on people
or upon environment.
The protest continued and the people in India were outraged because the wells were
starting to dry out and people were outraged. In the article Case against Coca-Cola Kerla State:
India it mentions, Coca Cola drew around 510,000 liters of water each day from boreholes and
open wells. For every 3.75 liters of water used by the plant, it produced one liter of product and a
large amount of waste water. The natural water source is India is being taken over by a private
company extracting large quantities of water. In addition, the water left from the production was
too polluted to be used to drink or use. Not only was water being wasted by the private company,
Coca Cola Company, but it started taking effect in endangering people that lived in the
community. In order for Coke to satisfy its production it went to the extreme and drafted water
from a poor community who relies on harvesting. Furthermore; while other countries enjoy their
coke during every meal they are unware of how others dont even have water to drink.

Ascencio 7
Although the Coke company brings jobs for local people and generates money for the
U.S. it does not mean that the company should take away water from poor rural areas and harm
innocent civilians with toxic chemical on their harvest, water, and land. It is immoral to leave
people without their primary source to live. It is unfair to the people of India to suffer simply
because the company needs to satisfy consumers demand. Conclusively, the people of India
were not compensated for the damages being done even after the Coke bottling plant was closed
and had to cure their soil to once again harvest. How does your Coke taste now?

Ascencio 8
Citations:
"BBC NEWS | South Asia | India to Test Coca-Cola Sludge." BBC News. BBC, 07 Aug.
2003. Web. 17 May 2016.
"Campaign to Stop Killer Coke | Coke's Crimes in India." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke
| Coke's Crimes in India. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2016
"Case against Coca-Cola Kerala State: India Rights to Water and Sanitation." Rights to
Water and Sanitation RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.
Gabbyb6. "Coke Bottling Plant in India." YouTube. YouTube, 09 May
2008. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Guest, Kenneth J. "Anthropology in a Global Age." Cultural Anthropology a Toolkit for a
Global Age. Ed. Peter Lesser. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 5-29. Print.
Jeffrey, Paul. "Wells run dry: coke faces thirsty opponents in India." National Catholic
Reporter 24 Mar. 2006: 11+. General OneFile. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.