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Coke Letter

Submitted by Karina on Wed, 2010-03-31 09:08

 Letter by: Josh, Alina, Karina, Gavi -- 8M 


Rafe and Sam-  This is the letter you can send to people... just add a concluding sentence or something. :) 

 

 

Dear _______________ ,

 

    We are grade 8 science students from Stratford Hall and we are writing this letter on behalf of all our peers.  We recently watched a video called “Water is Life” in our Science class, and it discussed water issues around the world.  One issue that was explained was the decline of ground water, and water in general, in Kaladera, India.  

 

    Coca-Cola has opened up a new factory in many communities in India, and many farmers are experiencing severe water shortages, practically all their wells have gone dry and some have had to move because they can not support the land and their families.  Over 70% of India's population makes a living related to Agriculture.  For every one liter of pop Coke makes they need three liters of water, farmer’s may use more then that, but the water they use goes back to the water cycle, while the water Coke uses travels thousands of miles in Coke and pop bottles and the water does not come back to the local communities. This process is not only harming people but also the eco-system around it.  This is a major problem that should be solved properly and effectively. 

 

    According to indiaresource.org, Coca-Cola extracted 1,48,259 cubic metres of water within seven months from March to September 2003. 

 

    Not only is Coke extracting water from many Indian communities, but it has also been indiscriminately discharging its waste water into the fields around its plant and sometimes into rivers in the area, including the Ganges. Coke causes Kaladera’s drink water to disappear, but also replaces it with waste water.  Both these problems effect the not only the local water cycle and eco-system, but also the national.  

 

 

   This image below shows the groundwater levels from 1990, to 2009. According to this website (http://ow.ly/1ld7M) Coca-Cola's operations started in 2000, and obviously the groundwater levels dipped ever since Coca-Cola started operations. 

 In Plachimada and Mehddiganj, India, Coca-Cola has been distributing its solid waste to the farmers and giving them to use for “fertilizer”. According to the BBC found cadium and lead after doing some test on this waste, the results showed that the waste was highly toxic and made the government pass a law to stop disturbing toxic waste to harmless farmers.  So not only are the farmers losing water, they are also getting toxic waste to put on their lands!

         

    “ For the last two years the company has been stealing precious drinking water from deep down the earth and our wells have gone all dry” explained Mylamma, and elderly tribe women who is fighting for her right to have fresh, free water in her home country. She is one of the leaders of water war against Coke stealing their water. 

 

    

    According to Coke their company says that " Our goal is to safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equivalent to what we use in all of our beverages and their productions." However, this is  not true because of the fights happening over in India especially.Coke is taking their  water and not giving it back. Coke is also not facing this major problem and is only concerning themselves about how much product Coke sells and if Coca Cola is being broad casted so that it is appealing concealing that the real facts and hardship behind the scenes. on the website it lists the countries that coke is helping. Coke has listed india as a country they are helping to get safe clean water in other parts of india. 

 

We are very fortunate to be able to access free, clean drinking water.  We feel that it is a global human right, to have access to water.  Coke is stealing India's drinking water, and that is unacceptable.  Together we can help the communities in India in getting their water back.  A class of twenty 8th grader students, cannot change Coke's affect on many Indian communities, but with your help, we can.