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Home--News
Coca-Cola Challenged at World Water Forum
"Coca-Cola's Sponsorship is Like the Fox Guarding the Chicken
House"
For Immediate Release
March 17, 2006
Contact:
Amit Srivastava, India Resource
Center +52 55 3414 5826 (Mexico), +1 415 336 7584 (US) Email: info@IndiaResource.org
Mexico City (March 17, 2006): The India Resource
Center is challenging the Coca-Cola company's sponsorship of the World
Water Forum, the largest international gathering to discuss the global
water crisis.
From March 16-22, 2006, Mexico is hosting the fourth World Water Forum,
an important international meeting aimed at finding solutions to the
global water crisis and "assuring better living standards for people
all over the world and a more responsible social behavior towards
water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development,"
according to the forum organizers.
"We are at a complete loss to understand how one of the largest abusers
of water resources in the world can become a leading sponsor of the
World Water Forum. Coca-Cola's practices on the ground are antithetical
to the stated goals of the World Water Forum," said Amit Srivastava,
director of the India Resource Center and in Mexico City to attend
the World Water Forum.
"Coca-Cola sponsoring the World Water Forum is akin to the fox guarding
the chicken house," he continued. "It has put the very credibility
of the Forum at stake. Instead of working to solve the crisis it continues
to create in India, the Coca-Cola company is busy trying to manufacture
an image of itself that it is not."
In articles released in the week leading up to the World Water Forum,
the India Resource Center has highlighted Coca-Cola's unsustainable
relationship with water.
- Coca-Cola extracted 283 billion liters of water in 2004, enough
water to meet the drinking needs of the entire world's population
for 10 days.
- Over 1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean
drinking water today. Coca-Cola's use of water could meet the
demands of this thirsty population for a month and a half.
- Coca-Cola converts two-thirds of the freshwater it extracts
into wastewater. In India, it has an even worse record, turning
75% of the freshwater it extracts from the ground into wastewater.
- The Coca-Cola company is the subject of a formidable nationwide
campaign in India challenging its water abuses, which have left
thousands of people experiencing severe water shortages. One of
Coca-Cola's largest bottling plants in India has been shut down
by the community for two years.
Amit Srivastava will be speaking at the
parallel NGO forum - International Forum in the Defense of Water -
on Saturday, March 18 at 12:30 pm. The event will take place at the
Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana (Villalongín 50,
Col. Cuauhtémoc) in Mexico City.
Mr. Srivastava will also be attending the official World Water Forum
to challenge the company for its continued abuses in India and using
the World Water Forum as a public relations tool.
For more information, visit www.IndiaResource.org
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