Kala Dera, in Rajasthan, was declared a drought area by the
Indian Government in September, following this year’s failed
monsoons. But the situation has been worsened by Coca-Cola’s
operations in the region. Their controversial bottling plant
draws on the same groundwater sources as those used by the local
community and farmers, with recent data revealing that
groundwater levels plummeted by 5.83 meters in just one year
between May 2007 and May 2008 – a huge drop never before
witnessed in Kala Dera. Coca-Cola’s use of the groundwater
reaches its peak in the summer months, exactly when water
shortages in the community are at their worst. ‘The Coca-Cola
Company is denying our fundamental human right to water by
continuing to extract groundwater from a rapidly falling
aquifer. Every drop of water that Coca-Cola extracts is water
taken away from the children, women and men who are unable to
meet their basic water needs, leave alone the farmers who are
seeing their crops fail,’ explains Mahesh Yogi of the Kala Der