Post # 2 - Coca-Cola: Jolly Old Saint Nick or The Grinch?

Coca-Cola: Jolly Old Saint Nick or The Grinch?

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            The privatization of water is a controversial topic that needs addressing. For many reasons, this whole business as usual philosophy doesn’t fit well with the green sustainably model. Firstly, companies such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola main philosophy is to strive for the maximization of profits. They achieve this by putting profits before environmental concerns. Money has always and will always be their top priority, whereas sustainability is more of an afterthought. For instance, in India, Coca-Cola owns and “operates 58 water-intensive bottling plants” which has led to the depletion of groundwater (Thought Co.). Over the last several years, the country has been hit hard with “persistent droughts [that] have dried up groundwater and local wells” (Thought Co.). Due to these droughts, many people in southern India have “linked the lack of groundwater” to Coca-Cola (Thought Co.). Similarly, the farming industry of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has a seen a drastic decline in groundwater, in which they believe Coca-Cola to be the culprit (thought co). Although the company has drained many villages only water source, they have also made matters worse by selling beverages that contain toxic pesticides (Thought Co.). Due to this, the bottling plants of both “Coca-Cola and Pepsi” had a health and safety test that found “a cocktail of between three to five different pesticides in all samples” (Thought co). Lastly, because of Coca-Cola’s actions, the Indian government has shut down “the Mehdiganj plant in the state of Uttar Pradesh” (Thought Co.). Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola company doesn’t believe that they haven’t done anything wrong and that their actions have not “contributed to the [depletion] of [local] aquifers” (Thought Co.). Perhaps they are correct, but perhaps they are 100% at fault. However, we mustn’t forget that the people of India understand their own water crisis better than the rest of the world. The western world can only sit back and speculate. However, in western Canada, the province of British Columbia has witnessed their own version of the Coca-Cola India controversy, and that involves the mega national corporation, Nestlé.  

References:

Talk, Earth. “Is Coca-Cola Increasing Groundwater Depletion and Pollution in India?” Thoughtco., Dotdash, www.thoughtco.com/coca-cola-groundwater-depletion-in-india-1204204.

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