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Global Water Scarcity : Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Limited

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Global Water Scarcity
2.
Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), commenced operations at its bottling plant at Plachimada in the southern state of Kerala in India. After the work commenced in 2000 the area surrounding the plant began to feel the plant’s hazardous effects, as the groundwater in the area was contaminated and toxic waste was released from the plant itself (base.d-p-h.info). Plachimada is a little hamlet in Palakkad district, which is also sometimes referred to as the ‘rice bowl of Kerala’. The majority of the population in this small village is engaged with agricultural related occupations. Around 80% of the villagers are engaged in agricultural labor with the other 20% engaged in other labor related activities (base.d-p-h.info). In 1998, HCCBPL acquired 34.4 acres of land in Plachimada in order to set up a bottling plant and on January 25th the Perumatty Panchayat (local governing body) granted HCCBPL permission to begin building the plant and in March 2000 the plant opened and operations began. The Kerala state pollution control board granted HCCBPL with a permit to produce 561,000 litres of beverage per day, with the average requirement of 3.8 litres of water for 1 litre of beverage. The primary source of this water was groundwater, being extracted from 6 bore wells and two open ponds, and around two million litres of water was extracted per day (base.d-p-h.info). Within six months of this plants commencement of its operations, the local

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