https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk Resource Guide to Planchimada Water Issue en-us 2021-09-21 17:36:44 UTC 2025-10-19 00:43:16 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f95b.png liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1757983195 1: Planchimada
2. Coca-Cola
3. Indian Farmers
4. Mayilamma]]> 2021-09-21 17:40:47 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1757983195 liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758017630 - A sparsely populated tribal hamlet in Perumatty Panchayat in Palakkad district, India
- 60% of its population is engaged to agriculture
- 'Rice Bowl of Kerala'
- Local people: Adivasis
- Coca-Cola pulled 1.5 million liter water every day when they started production, from 6 different wells
- Limited to 500000L ground water per day by Supreme Counrt in 2005

ISSUE TIMELINE:
- 1999: Coca-Cola moved in on this 38-acre plant
- 2000 March: Plant put into production
- 2002 April: Coca-Cola Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithy fighting against the company in Kerala
- 2002: Court directed litigants to the local self-government department after the first court time of case
- 2003 December: The high court claimed that "ground water was a public property held in trust by a government and that it had no rights to allow a private party to overexploit the resource to the detriment of the people."
- 2004 March: Company stopped operation of the plant
- 2005 June: 3 month operating license given by the high court to start production again
- 2005 August: Shut down the plant the last time because of high court, "The board had examined the sludge generated by the company and it was found that it was containing the heavy metal cadmium at concentration of 200 to 300 mg per kg of sludge, which is 400% to 600% above the tolerance/permissible limit."
- 2005 November: Water Resource Department in India has included Planchimada under the category of "Overexploited".]]> 2021-09-21 17:53:21 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758017630 liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758045059 - Reason they chose Planchimada: cheap labor, low tax, little environmental restrictions, few corporate regulations, hard for the company to hold liable for the water right violations.
- They hid multiple factories for their harm to the environment
- "Coca-Cola is depriving the locals of the psychological level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in some of the poorest countries in the world."
- Known for always trying to use their political power to reopen the factories closed by local authorities.
- They use 1 million liter of water per day, 290 billion liter per year
- They say it's a poor management's decision, that they decided to use groundwater in India without knowing that water shortage took place
- Managers focused on pleasing upper-level boss so they don't care about others or the environment or the company
- They trucked water to nearby villages when they started to "feel bad"
- Indian local farmers had beaten by the police for protesting outside Coca-Cola plants
- They tried to be a water-neutral company (only use water it could replace) by 2010 

]]> 2021-09-21 18:03:33 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758045059 liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758062252 Mayilamma - Symbol of people's resistance to multinational companies' exploitation

- A tribeswoman from Planchimada village
- Kerala-Tamil Nadu border
- Died in 2007 aged 67
- Icon of the people's fight against the mighty cola company
- Former worker of the plant
- She found the company caused the drying up to 64 open wells and caused the contamination of all ground water in the area
- She decided to strike back
- She found "Plachimada Anti-Coca Cola Struggle Committee" -- campaigned for several years and sat in dharna near the plant for more that 3 years to get the plant to shut down
- After the plant is closed, the committee focused on securing compensation for the victims of the water pollution caused by the Coca-Cola plant
- She could not see her dream come true]]> 2021-09-21 18:10:18 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758062252 liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758078966 Planchimada now depends on water supplied by Panchayat through pipelines. However, people have to pay 100 per month to use and was asked 3500 when the pipelines were being built.

People in Planchimada claimed that Coca-Cola stole their jobs, their money, water, their well-being, their time and human lives for that matter.

A bill in 2011 was brought out that is related to compensating to victims of water shortage. The bill was constructed in 2011 and it made its way all the way to the president himself, who didn't apply the bill and it was killed by 2015.

"This government has come to power for 3 years and they're cheating us now. They're not doing anything they promised" -- we can see that similar issues still have possibility to take place.

Coca-Cola also works very closely with governments all over the world, it's likely for the company to conduct similar behaviors, we wish they stopped doing it.]]> 2021-09-21 18:16:51 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758078966 liu8729 https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758126739 2021-09-21 18:36:52 UTC https://padlet.com/liu8729/nhdgg06naag05dnk/wish/1758126739