PHM-Exch> Coke, Pepsi Bottlers Fined for Environmental Damages in India

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Amit Srivastava <amit at indiaresource.org>



*PRESS: Coca-Cola Bottler Fined $2 Million, PepsiCo Bottler $1.3 Million
for Environmental Damages in India *
New Delhi (March 4, 2022):  Coca-Cola's Indian bottler, Moon Beverages, has
been fined US$ 2 million by the country's highest green court for causing
environmental damages at two of its bottling plants in India.

PepsiCo's bottler, Varun Beverages, has also been found guilty of damaging
the environment and fined US$ 1.3 million by the National Green Tribunal.

The 246 page judgment
<https://greentribunal.gov.in/gen_pdf_test.php?filepath=L25ndF9kb2N1bWVudHMvbmd0L2Nhc2Vkb2MvanVkZ2VtZW50cy9ERUxISS8yMDIyLTAyLTI1LzE2NDU3ODM2MjMyMzMwNzk4NDQ2MjE4YWE0NzhlNjY3LnBkZg==>,
released last Friday, faulted three bottling facilities of having violated
environmental laws by operating without the required "No Objection
Certificate" (NOC) to withdraw ground water which is issued by the Central
Ground Water Authority (CGWA).

Furthermore, the National Green Tribunal found both companies to have
violated the terms of its license by not fulfilling its obligations to
recharge ground water - a condition of the last valid license that both the
companies had.

The Tribunal wrote that the companies "*are responsible for illegal
extraction of ground water at least after expiry of NOCs, issued to them by
CGWA. They continued to extract ground water without any authority.
Further, they are also liable to pay environmental compensation for causing
loss to environment by failing to comply the most crucial condition of
NOCs, i.e., recharge of water*."

"*Having committed the said default, they are liable to pay environmental
compensation for the said cause/loss, besides other legal action civil,
criminal as the case may be. Thus, PPs shall pay environmental compensation
for abstraction of ground water after expiry of NOCs and failing to
recharge ground water as per the condition of NOCs*", wrote the Tribunal,
with PPs referring to the Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottlers.

Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act 1986 "*provides for
environmental compensation in case of illegal abstraction of ground water.
Extraction of ground water for commercial use by industries, infrastructure
units and mining projects without a valid NOC from appropriate authority
shall be considered illegal and such entities shall be liable to pay
environmental compensation for the quantum of ground water so extracted.
Moreover, under Section 16, stricter provisions of penalty for
non-compliance of NOC conditions have also been incorporated in the revised
guidelines*," said the Tribunal.

Although both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo tout their supposedly exemplary water
conservation achievements around the world, with both companies claiming to
have met fantastic (and mostly impossible) water conservation targets, the
Indian High Court found that PepsiCo only recharged 4% of the water it was
required to (and had agreed to) as a condition of their license.  The
Coca-Cola bottler did not even bother to offer any water recharge numbers
to the court, even though it was invited to do so.

The India Resource Center has scrutinized the preposterous claims on water
conservation made by both Coca-Cola
<https://theecologist.org/2015/aug/25/never-mind-greenwash-coca-cola-can-never-be-water-neutral>
and PepsiCo <http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2011/pepsipositivewater.html>
for over a decade, and found them to be designed primarily for public
relations to deflect criticism of its water management practices than
actually making any concrete changes on the ground.

In a number of meetings with and letters to Indian regulators, the India
Resource Center has also pointed to the ineffectiveness of mandating water
recharge by companies (as a part of their license to operate) in the absence
<https://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/mehdiganj/Letters/LetterCPCBJune32015.pdf>
of monitoring mechanisms.

The offending Coca-Cola bottling plants are located in Greater Noida and
Sahibabad, and the PepsiCo plant in Greater Noida - all in the state of
Uttar Pradesh and in the suburbs of New Delhi - supplying one of the
largest markets in India for both the companies.

The Central Ground Water Authority - the central government's regulatory
agency in India - has also told the court that it will no longer provide a
"No Objection Certificate" to the bottling plants because they are located
in water stressed areas, known as either over-exploited, critical or
semi-critical - depending on the state of the ground water resource.

Although the National Green Tribunal found Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottlers
guilty of violating Indian laws and penalized them, the court had much
harsher words for the government regulator, the Central Ground Water
Authority, stating that, *"CGWA for the reasons best known to it acted
wholly illegally*", and pointed to numerous deficiencies in the Authority's
operations.  It also called many of the regulations by the Authority to
conserve ground water as "illusory".

The Tribunal also ruled, importantly, that the Central Ground Water
Authority had a mandate to regulate ground water across all states in India
- the Authority had claimed
<https://cgwa-noc.gov.in/LandingPage/GroundWater.htm> to only have
jurisdiction over states which did not have their own groundwater
management legislation.

Coca- Cola has been the target of community-led campaigns in India for
causing water shortages and pollution for over a decade.  A number of
Coca-Cola bottling plants, including in Plachimada (Kerala), Kala Dera
(Rajasthan), and Mehdiganj (Uttar Pradesh) have been shut down as a
result.  Other proposed bottling plants have also been shelved as a result
of proactive protests.

"*The fines and scrutiny by the National Green Tribunal on Coca-Cola and
PepsiCo's continued violation of environmental laws in India are welcome.
However, the monetary fines are too little for the global giants to have
any deterrent effect.  They will continue to pay such fines to pollute and
degrade groundwater. For them, it is essentially a pay to pollute regime*,"
said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center
<http://www.indiaresource.org/>, an international campaigning organization
that has been central to the successful campaigns to hold Coca-Cola
accountable for water abuses in India.
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