The Wake

The Coca-Cola Corporation is in trouble again, according to an activist group that began a campaign against the company on campus on Friday, Nov. 12. Corporate Accountability International, formerly known as Infact, says Coke is using up quality water for soft drink and bottled water products in poverty-stricken areas of India, which are then left to use the polluted water in rivers for bathing and cooking.

Students who share the activist groups’ attitude about Coca-Cola could call in to a hotline and leave a message asking Coke to “Stop stealing water.” The exact total of call-in campaigns has not yet been tabulated, but according to Minneapolis organizer Jacek Pruski, hundreds have called in to protest Coke’s actions across the country.

The protests in the United States are joined with efforts from India as well. More than 1,000 people plan to march 150 miles to protest Coca-Cola’s overuse of water.

This is not the first time that Coca-Cola has come under the scrutiny of the eyes of college students. The student senate of Carleton College, located in Northfield, Minn., voted to end its vending contract vending over the murder of several Coca-Cola union workers in South American countries including Columbia.

Corporate Accountability International, in its previous life as Infact, participated in protests against Nestle Corporation in 1977, estimating that millions of infants died due to contaminated water mixed with the formula. Among other past and present causes are General Electric for its support of nuclear weapons programs and Phillip Morris (now Altria) for undisclosed risks about use of tobacco products.

Corporate Accountability demands that Coca-Cola close its plants permanently in India’s communities of Plachimada and Mehdiganj to prevent further lowering of water tables. The group would also like to see Coke pay compensation to these communities for combating contamination diseases such as cholera that have become prevalent.