Right action

Two years ago, adivasi women in Plachimada, a small hamlet in Palghat, Kerala, started a movement against Coca-Cola. Today, the Coca-Cola plant in Plachimada has been shut down. The victory of the Plachimada movement is a major step in reversing the corporate hijack of our precious water resources. It provides both inspiration and lessons for building “water democracy” in other parts of India and in the rest of the world.

The Coca-Cola plant in Plachimada was commissioned in March 2000 to produce 1,224,000 bottles of Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Limca, Thums Up, Kinley Soda and Maaza. The panchayat had issued a conditional licence for installing a motor for drawing water. However, through electric pumps, the company started to illegally extract millions of litres of clean water from more than 6 bore wells installed by it in order to manufacture soft drinks. The water level started to fall drastically.

Not only did Coca-Cola “steal” the water of the local community, it also polluted what was left. Before pumping the wastewater into dry bore wells within the company premises, it deposited them outside. During the rainy season, the waste spread into paddy fields, canals and wells, causing serious health hazards. Complaints were also received from tribals and farmers that storage of water and sources of water were being adversely affected by the indiscriminate installation of bore wells for tapping ground water. This had serious consequences for cultivation in the area.

When the panchayat asked for details and the company failed to comply, it served a show cause notice and cancelled the licence. Coca-Cola tried to bribe the panchayat president, but without any success. In 2003, the district medical officer informed the people of Plachimada that their water was unfit for drinking. The women already knew the water was toxic and walked miles from home to collect drinking water. Coca-Cola had created water scarcity in a water-abundant region, and the women were not going to allow this “hydropiracy”. They started a dharna at the gates of Coca-Cola. On September 21, 2003 a huge rally was organized to give an ultimatum to Coca-Cola. In January, a World Water Conference brought global activists like Jose Bove and Maude Barlow to Plachimada to support the local activists.

A movement started by local adivasi women had thus unleashed a national and global wave in their support. On February 17, 2004 the Kerala chief minister, under pressure from the growing movement and the aggravation of the water crisis, ordered closure of the Coke plant. The victory of the movement was the result of forging broad alliances and using multiple strategies. The rainbow alliances beginning with local women and activists grew to include the local gram panchayat and its members. The local panchayat used its constitutional rights to serve notice on Coca-Cola. The Perumatty panchayat also filed a public interest litigation in the Kerala high court against Coca-Cola.

The courts supported the women’s demands. In an order on December 16, 2003, Justice Balakrishnana Nair ordered Coca-Cola to stop pirating Plachimada’s water. The order stated: “The Public Trust Doctrine primarily rests on the principle that certain resources like air, sea waters and the forests have such a great importance to the people as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership...The doctrine enjoins upon the government to protect the resources for the enjoyment of the general public rather than to permit their use for private ownership or commercial purpose...The State is the trustee of all natural resources, which are by nature meant for public use and enjoyment. Public at large is the beneficiary of the seashore, running waters, airs (sic), forests and ecologically fragile lands”.

In view of the above authoritative statement of the court, it can be safely concluded that underground water belongs to the public. The state has a duty to protect ground water against excessive exploitation and its inaction in this regard is tantamount to infringement of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. So, even in the absence of any law governing ground water, the panchayat and the state are bound to protect ground water from excessive exploitation.

Even if experts were to opine that the present level of consumption by the plant is harmless, it cannot be allowed to do so since the underground water belongs to the people and the company has no right to claim a huge share of it. The government has no power to allow a private party to extract such a huge quantity of ground water, which is a property, held by it in trust. If the company is permitted to draw such a huge quantity of ground water, then similar claims of the other landowners will also have to be allowed, which will result in the drying up of the underground reservoirs.

Accordingly, the company was directed to stop using ground water after a month from the date of the judgment. The time was granted to enable the company to find out alternative sources of water.

The alliance grew to include people like Veerandra Kumar of Mathrubhumi and me. We mobilized our networks to offer full support to the local movement. The January conference co-organized with the local panchayat brought on one platform every political party, especially the leader of the opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, who kept up the pressure in the Kerala assembly to translate the court decision into executive action. The literary movement provided leadership through Sukumar Azhikode. And global support came through the presence of Jose Bove, Maude Barlow, European parliamentarians and activists from across the world. The women’s protest, which is the heart and soul of the movement, got support through legal action, parliamentary action and scientific research.

This pluralism and diversity in support of local action was the secret of the victory of people against Coke in Plachimada. This is the strength of our multiplicities and complementarities which we have to mobilize in other parts of India where Coke and Pepsi are mining and stealing peoples’ water resources. Coca-Cola has 52 plants in India and Pepsi 38 plants. Each plant will be extracting between 1 to 1.5 million litres per day. This amounts to more than 1 trillion or 1 lakh crore litres.