Activists Occupy Coca-Cola Factory In Kerala

By NAPM

17 December, 2011
Source: http://countercurrents.org/napm171211.htm

New Delhi, December 17 : About twenty two members of Plachimada Coca-Cola Virudha Samara Samithi and Plachimada solidarity forum including Vilayodi Venugopal, Sri N. P. Johnson, N Subramanyan, Fr. Augustine, M N Giri, Sahadevan and ors, walked in to the premises of the Coca Cola Factory in Kerala state, India and courted arrest. When produced the Magistrate ordered their release on furnishing personal bond but activists refused to take bail in protest against apathy on the part of state government and the delaying and subverting tactics in favour of Coca Cola. NAPM hails the action of these activists and salutes their courage for choosing to do this to bring home the dire need for quick passage of the ‘Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011.

It needs to be noted that based on the report submitted by Plachimada High Power Committee appointed by Goverment of Kerala, ‘Plachimada Coca-Cola Victims’ Relief and Compensation Claims Special Tribunal Bill, 2011’ was passed by the Assembly on 24 February 2011. The Bill sent by the Governor of Kerala to the President via the central Ministry of Home Affairs on 30 March, and the Home Ministry in turn has sent it to various related ministries for their comments on 17 April. They were then supposed to forward the Bill to the President with the consolidated comments.

The decision to send the Bill to the President was taken by the State Law Department, although there was no issue of repugnance and hence there was no need for Presidential assent. There is no question of repugnance as the law deals, in its operative part, with entirely state subjects, namely, losses in agriculture, health care, animal husbandry, job loss and groundwater contamination.

Very recently, the Union government has referred the Bill back to State government but till date State Law Ministry has not done anything on this. We fail to understand this delay, when in the State as well as at the Centre Indian National Congress Party is in power in coalition. Is this delay part of a larger design ? Is the government trying to serve the interests of the Coca Cola Corporation ? It is extremely shameful that the governments at the State and Centre are neglecting the demands of the suffering communities and the elected Gram Sabha. We all know that continuous Satyagraha has been going on since earth day in 2002, which has now completed almost a decade. How long are they expected to wait ?

Amidst all this Kerala government is planning to give distribution rights to Coco - Cola for providing drinking water to government hospitals in Kerala. Union Minister of State for Food Sri K.V. Thomas declared that months back. It was after sustained people's movements and pressure from the groups across the country which forced the government to enact this special tribunal Bill. It is high time government brought this enactment to force and justice is done to the suffering communities and Coke is held responsible for their Corporate Crimes and made to pay for this. Our struggle to hold the corporations accountable will continue until justice is done to the people.

Medha Patkar, Sandeep Pandey, Gabriele Dietrich, Prafulla Samantara, Geo Josh, Hussain master, Gabriele Dietrich, Suniti S R, Rajendra Ravi, Ramakrishna Raju, Anand Mazgaonkar, Vimal Bhai, Madhuresh Kumar.

Campaigners accuse Coca-Cola CEO of not being open with investors about the potential liabilities it faces for environmental damage in water-stressed

Ecologist, 23rd April, 2010

Campaigners accuse Coca-Cola CEO of not being open with investors about the potential liabilities it faces for environmental damage in water-stressed areas of India

Coca-Cola is misleading investors about potential financial and criminal actions against the company in India, according to campaigners.

Last month, a government-appointed committee in the State of Kerala published a report recommending that Coca-Cola pay $48 million for damage caused by its bottling plant in the village of Plachimada.

The committee, which included heads of Kerala’s Agriculture, Groundwater, Health and Pollution Control Departments, said the company unlawfully depleted groundwater, polluted water resources and could face criminal charges on top of a financial penalty.

However, at Coca-Cola’s AGM in Atlanta this week, CEO Muhtar Kent said accusations against the company were ‘unfounded and false.’

‘There have been several scientific studies and litigation on the allegations that Coca-Cola depleted water and contaminated the environment but none, I repeat none, concluded that the Coca-Cola company or any of its bottlers were the cause,’ said Kent.

He also said the call to pay damages was ‘simply a recommendation from a committee' and that Coca-Cola would ‘rigorously defend any actions that result.’

Forced closure

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola has since said that any government committee or panel reviewing claims 'should first determine through an established process of law whether any damage was caused to the residents of Palakkad, and second, if such damage was caused, who was responsible'.

The spokesperson continued: 'It is unfortunate that the committee in Kerala was appointed on the unproven assumption that damage was caused, and that it was caused by Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages.'

Campaigners say they still believe the company could be forced to pay damages and close some of the 56 bottling plants it operates across India.

‘It is only a matter of time before Coca-Cola will have to shut down its plants in water stressed areas and pay damages for the compensation for damages it has caused. Arrogance and incompetence are not traits suited for long-term sustainability,’ said Amit Srivastava from the India Resource Centre.

Groundwater levels

There is also further controversy surrounding another of the Coca-Cola’s bottling plants in the north Indian state of Rajasthan. Campaigners say groundwater levels have dropped over 22 meters since Coca-Cola started operating the facility in the desert region nine years ago.

A study paid for by Coca-Cola and conducted by the Energy and Resources Institute in 2008 recommended that the plant be shut down, relocated or stop extracting groundwater. But the company continues to extract groundwater in Kala Dera, say campaigners, even during last summer’s drought.

‘Coca-Cola has no business operating in Kala Dera when children, women and even farmers don’t have enough water to drink and make a living,’ said Mahesh Yogi of the Kala Dera Sangharsh Samiti, a local campaign group.

Coca-Cola continues to insist it aims to be a 'net-zero' user of groundwater in India by the end of 2010.

Government Moves to Claim $48 Million Compensation from Coca-Cola

Will Set Up Claims Tribunal to Process Claims from Affected Parties

For Immediate Release

July 2, 2010

New York: In a major step towards holding Coca-Cola accountable for damages it has caused in India, the state government of Kerala decided on Wednesday to move forward with the formation of a tribunal that will hear and award compensation claims against the Coca-Cola company.

The Kerala state cabinet's decision is based on the report and recommendations of a High Power Committee which released a report on March 22, 2010 holding Coca-Cola responsible for causing pollution and water depletion in Plachimada in the state of Kerala in south India.

Using the "polluter pays principle", the High Power Committee had recommended that Coca-Cola be held liable for Indian Rupees 216 crore (US$ 48 million) for damages caused as a result of the company's bottling operations in Plachimada.

The Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada has remained shut down since March 2004 as a result of the community-led campaign in Plachimada challenging Coca-Cola's abuse of water resources.

The tribunal will consider claims of compensation from the Coca-Cola company relating to "water and air pollution, loss of agricultural crops and animals, diseases affecting human beings in the surrounding area due to the excess drawal and pollution of groundwater and surface water by the Company," according to the report accepted by the state government. The tribunal will also consider claims related to "loss of wages and loss of educational opportunities."

The report noted that the suggested figure of $48 million was "indicative in nature" and "should not be treated as the outer limit of compensation." The report also stated that the "actual compensation will have to be calculated by an Authority duly set up for this purpose."

Local activists engaged in the campaign to shut down Coca-Cola's bottling plant and hold the company accountable for the damages it has caused welcomed the move by the state government. They also called for pursuing criminal charges against Coca-Cola for the various laws it had violated, a course of action also supported by the High Power Committee.

"The Kerala government's integrity and decisiveness can be demonstrated only when it follows up on the other recommendations of the High Power Committee which unequivocally stated the compensation is not to be viewed as a quid pro quo for not initiating criminal charges," said R. Ajayan of the Plachimada Solidarity Committee, a statewide organization that has been instrumental in moving the compensation process forward.

In spite of the overwhelming evidence implicating Coca-Cola in Plachimada, the company denies any wrongdoing in Kerala. Coca-Cola has also questioned the legitimacy of the High Power Committee, a body set up by the state government of Kerala that is one of the highest possible empowered committees to be set up in the state.

Recent reports also suggest that the company will use legal maneuvers to tie up the compensation process in courts.

"Coca-Cola has been forced to shut down its operations in Plachimada since 2004, and no amount of legal maneuvering will help it recover its disrepute or change the final outcome. The best thing Coca-Cola can do is to accept the will of the people and the state - pack up, pay up and leave," said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center, an international campaigning organization.

The recommendations of the High Power Committee are here.

A list of the members of the High Power Committee is here.

For more information, visit www.IndiaResource.org

Contacts:
R. Ajayan, Plachimada Solidarity Committee +91 98471 42513
C. R. Bijoy, People's Union for Civil Liberties +91 98431 72584
Amit Srivastava, India Resource Center +1 415 336 7584 (US)

---ends---

FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. India Resource Center is making this article available in our efforts to advance the understanding of corporate accountability, human rights, labor rights, social and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Water levels in free fall

Groundwater levels in the state in free fall

GraphsThe quantum of groundwater Andhra Pradesh received earlier from 100,000 borewells is now obtained by drilling 260,000 borewells, said A K Jain, special secretary to the state’s irrigation and command area development department.

B Peddiraji, tehsildar of Butchayyapeta in Visakhapatnam district, added there is tremendous pressure on groundwater, with the level down to 91 metres in most villages. For instance, he cited, “Butchayyapeta mandal depends heavily on borewells as assured irrigation facilities are available only in three of its 32 panchayats.”

The April 2010 groundwater level report also said groundwater levels in the state is falling fast. Compared to last year there was a fall of 23.15 metres in Dhone mandal of Kurnool district. More than 80 villages across the state have seen a fall of more than four metres between 2009 and 2010, the report said.

“The quantum of water that was received by drilling 100,000 borewells is now obtained by drilling 260,000 borewells” — A K JAIN, Special Secretary, Irrigation and Command Area Development

“The fall of groundwater cannot be pegged to one cause (borewells). It is the result of deficit and infrequent rain, reduction in recharge area and lastly, over exploitation,” said Murli Krishna, director of the state’s groundwater department.

The April 2010 report also says that the groundwater level on an average in Andhra Pradesh has fallen 12 metres below ground level in the past year, the lowest since March 2007. Between May 1998 and March 2010 the water level has fallen two metres below average in the state (see graphs).

Despite heavy rains in 2008 the groundwater levels have only margi - nally risen in the state. According to officials the continuing fall is because of uneven rainfall across the state.

“Rainfall is the main source of groundwater recharge and during the last decade this source has become erratic and sometimes very low,” said Krishna. “People resort to groundwater because it is economical and easily available, and it consumes less time to drill a borewell,” he added. This is more so because of the limited surface water resources and their uneven distribution. Thus the strain on groundwater aquifers, mostly in upland areas, is increasing every day, Krishna said.

According to the Bureau of Statistics and Economics in Hyderabad, the total cultivated area in the state in 2008-09 was 6.7 million ha. Of this, 3.3 million ha was under surface irrigation and 3.4 million ha under groundwater irrigation. In 2006-07, the area under groundwater irrigation was 2.8 million ha, surface irrigation was 3.1 million ha.

As per the 2006-07 data of the groundwater department, there are 132 overexploited basins, 89 critical, 175 semi-critical and 833 safe basins (see table).

Andhra Pradesh is divided into 40 drainage basins and 81 sub basins of major and minor rivers. The 81 sub basins are divided into 1,229 groundwater micro basins of 100-300 sq km area based on drainage, geomorphology and hydrogeology. There is an addition of more than 50,000 groundwater extraction structures every year, said Krishna. In the last three decades well population—borewells and dugwells—increased from 0.8 million to 2.5 million.

But there is no record of the borewells that are dug illegally, admits C Suvarna, special commissioner at the state rural development department. The reason, she said, was the district water management authority under the groundwater department does not send them regular data. “When we question them they say the line departments, which include the mandal revenue office and the power department, do not submit any information to them,” she added.

They can just count the number of transformers in villages to find out the number of borewells, said Narshimha Reddy, a farmer from Velgonda village in Mahabubnagar. A 100 KW transformer supports 20 borewells.

Officials of the groundwater department say they collect and collate data in the state and have no policy-making or law-enforcing powers. “We are a technical department and can only assist other implementing agencies like the irrigation department and the rural development department in water conservation or regulation projects,” said Krishna.

Source: Down To Earth

No one is following regulations

Farmers take no permission, officers do not survey wells

Farmers say they don’t need permission to drill borewells because it is their rightThe Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA) was enacted in 2002. Meant to regulate groundwater use, the Act requires farmers to register their borewells with the mandal revenue office after getting clearance from the district groundwater office. Farmers like Muniratnam Naidu in Chittoor district laugh at the idea of taking permission. “All one needs to do is hire a rig, pay money to a geologist and drill a borewell,” he said.

T Basavaiah, deputy tehsildar of Chittoor district’s K V Palle mandal, admitted to widespread violation of WALTA in the district. “We have seized three borewells this year for which permission was not sought,” he said. But the Act has helped monitor and record the extent of groundwater use and generated awareness among farmers, said A K Jain, special secretary to the state’s irrigation and command area development department.

Farmers consider groundwater their right. “The authorities have not provided us with alternative sources of irrigation. How can they stop us from finding something that is ours?” asked K Basappa, resident of Ramanapalli village in Mahabubnagar’s Hanwada mandal. Basappa drilled three borewells between 2009 and 2010 and did not apply for permission. No one questioned him either, he added. Hanwada mandal’s revenue officer, Anjana Devi, maintained no one could drill borewells without their knowledge.

Basappa said at least 300 borewells are functional in his village; there is no count of failed borewells. But the data with the mandal office shows one farmer sought permission to drill a borewell and only one drilled borewell without permission, which the district officials stopped well in time.

Officials get to know of borewells only if there are complaints, which are rare, said Basappa. Often if one farmer strikes water, his neighbour attempts to drill a borewell close to that spot. If there is disagreement between two farmers, cases go to the mandal revenue officer. After investigation, either one or both the borewells are sealed.

Mandal revenue officers claim they submit monthly reports to the groundwater department on the number of borewells. The revenue inspector and the village revenue officer are mandated under the law to visit each borewell site for verification. Farmers say officials hardly ever conduct field surveys.

Then there are bribes

Bal Swami of Burugupalle village in Mahabubnagar district said he tried to get permission for two borewells six years ago. He was denied permission but decided to get them drilled.

“We are required to go through different departments and that makes it tough. Bribes for permission can be expensive,” he said. In some cases farmers bribe mandal officials for power connections instead of taking permission, said B Peddiraji, tehsildar of Butchayyapeta in Visakhapatnam district. He admitted to WALTA violations. He said he received 100 applications for drilling borewells in Butchayyapeta mandal this year but the actual number of borewells drilled would surely be double. “They are doing it illegally all the time,” he said.

“To get permission for a borewell we are required to go through different departments. Bribes for permissions are expensive” —BAL SWAMI, Burugupalle village

In East Godavari district some farmers drill borewells without permission but manage approval certificates and power connections. Narisi Srinivas of Pydikonda village in the district’s Thondangi mandal said he spent Rs 85,000 on his borewell, which included money paid for clearances. The practice is rampant in the area, he added.

The tehsildar of Thondangi, C H V R Sudhakar, denied the bribery charges but admitted WALTA is violated. “It is not possible to verify everything physically. We received 85 applications for borewells this year; 40 were granted permission. We found people had sunk borewells at sites different from the ones mentioned in their applications. We have cancelled a few permissions because some of the applicants failed to maintain a minimum distance of 250 metres between two borewells, as is stipulated in WALTA,” said Sudhakar.

Jain, though, claimed that the legislation had facilitated complaints. He gave the example of a water bottling plant in Ranga Reddy district, which was shut after residents complained about it last year. He also said his department was framing policies to demystify the belief that groundwater is farmers’ property. “Farmers need to realize that groundwater is not an infinite resource,” he added.

Although WALTA is one of the best pieces of legislation on groundwater use it has not been effective on the ground because of lack of coordination between departments, said Palla Narendra, a hydrologist and associate professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Hyderabad.

Bappu Reddy, a farmer in Medak’s Yavapur village, said technology is the need of the hour. “We need technological assistance to locate groundwater,” he said.

WALTA is under review, said C Suvarna, special commissioner at the state rural development department. “We will either improve it or bring in a new law. We will involve experts and NGOs before formulating the policy,” she said.

Source: Down To Earth

Andhra's groundwater crisis & a trail of suicides

Groundwater has failed Andhra Pradesh’s farmers. Between 1997 and 2006, about 4,500 farmers committed suicide, unable to repay loans they had taken to drill borewells. MOYNA and ASHUTOSH MISHRA found farmers scoffing at rules to dig deeper for an uncertain resource. They have few alternatives. The Andhra government intends to check the increasingly depleting groundwater reserves by roping in farmers to monitor groundwater use. Will it result in a shift to less water-intensive crops?

Photos: Moyna

MAHABUBNAGAR

A Shekhar, 25, committed suicide a year ago. A resident of Burgupalle village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahabub - nagar district, he had bought half a hectare (ha) for growing paddy.

He borrowed Rs 1.5 lakh to sink three borewells but did not find groundwater. Shekhar could not repay the debt, so he hung himself in his house. His wife, along with their two and four years old sons, left the village to find work in Hyderabad, said Bal Swami, once Shekhar’s neighbour.

Swami has a debt of Rs 5 lakh. He sunk 15 borewells between March and April this year. The deepest was 106 metres. Over the past six years he has sunk 39 borewells. Two yield water. He uses them to grow paddy on about a hectare to make ends meet. His remaining four ha lie unused.

In Velgonda village, 25 km from Burgupalli, farmer Venkat Reddy, 50, sank seven borewells—the deepest at 122 metres—in one day in April. Two yielded water. Rig owners refused to drill further because the rig was not powerful enough to drill through the rock bed. He is now contemplating a loan from a bank to repay the interest for the Rs 4 lakh he borrowed from lenders in his village. R Krishtaya Naik, sarpanch of Macharam village in the district, had to sell 1.2 ha to repay the debt incurred four years ago after sinking three borewells.

Explaining the desperate attempts of farmers to find water, Swami said if one hits water, one earns. And then the loans can be repaid in two to five crop seasons. Otherwise, it’s a difficult life forcing farmers to take extreme steps such as suicide.

Finding groundwater is a gamble. Between 2009 and 2010 the groundwater department of Andhra Pradesh investigated 15,263 sites and recommended 7,335 sites for borewells.

“There is no foolproof way of finding water,” said Sudershan Reddy of Vepur village where 80 borewells were drilled this year; four yield water. Geologists sometimes help farmers find the spot where groundwater would be found. They charge Rs 1,000-5,000. Sometimes people blessed with special powers, or water diviners as they are called, bail out farmers by locating the right spot. They use coconuts, neem twigs to locate groundwater, and usually charge Rs 500 or more

“Even with machines and gadgets we are not 100 per cent sure of hitting water. We cannot disregard native knowledge,” said N Eswara Reddy, capacity building expert with the groundwater department. “Use of coconuts for precision could be debated, but not dismissed,” he added.

CHITTOOR

Dhanalakshmi’s eyes turn moist every time she looks at the portrait of her husband in her house in Ayyavandlapalle village in Pulicherla mandal. Her husband Siddaiah Naidu consumed pesticide in 2004 after the five borewells he sunk on his 1.2 ha failed.

Dhanalakshmi’s husband killed himself after five borewells failed him (Photo: Saroj Mishra)His neighbour, K Muniratnam Naidu, has sunk seven borewells in the past nine years. He is planning one more this year. “I cannot let my land be at the mercy of nature. If it does not rain the groundnut crop will be ruined, and we might starve,” he said.

In the nearby K V Palle mandal, Raja Reddy who owns about five ha, has tried to kill himself thrice. Seven borewells failed Raja; he has a debt of Rs 2 lakh with an interest rate of 3 per cent per month. He returns late to avoid creditors who pester his wife Lakshamma.

Raja’s daughters live with relatives 20 km away because of the everyday embarrassment with creditors. “He asks me to leave the village with him because he cannot stand the humiliation of turning a pauper. But where do we go and what do we do?” his wife asked.

Raja drilled his last borewell to 198 metres. He wanted the water for his tomato crop, which fetches good returns. Fellow villager A Venkataramana Reddy said there were a few small tanks in the village for irrigation, which remain dry in summer.

“We need water and cannot grow anything without borewells, so we keep trying despite failures,” he said. Venkataramana, who grows groundnut, has two failed borewells, a debt of Rs 1 lakh with an interest of 3 per cent per month.

Drilling to new depths

Chittoor is prone to drought, which makes it worse. As per official records about 56 per cent of the total irrigated area in the district is watered through borewells. Therefore, drilling to new depths is not unusual. The average depth of groundwater in the western mandals of the district is about 152 metres, said Vijay Shekhar of the nonprofit, Foundation for Ecological Security. T Basavaiah, deputy tehsildar of K V Palle mandal, though, claimed groundwater in the mandal is at 106 metres. A farmer claimed it is deeper.

K Muniratnam will try drilling the eighth borewell. Or, he will starve (Photo: Saroj Mishra)“We drilled to 170 metres on the advice of a geologist. We did not find water. The geologist asked us to drill to 213 metres, but the rig was not powerful enough. We gave up,” said Muniratnam Naidu of Ayyavandlapalle.

The density and depth of borewells are a result of the shift to commercial crops, lack of alternative irrigation sources and deficit rainfall, said B Venkat Reddy of the non-profit, Sahajeevan. “Chittoor has seen a shift to tomato farming. It requires intensive irrigation between February and July, the driest period,” he said. “Tomatoes fetch good money, with farmers receiving as much as Rs 35 per kg at times.”

VISAKHAPATNAM

While the dry regions of the state take the lead in the number of borewells, coastal areas are not far behind in groundwater exploitation.

Donkina Jaleswar Rao, former sarpanch of Butchayyapeta village, borrowed Rs 60,000 from a moneylender two years ago for digging a borewell in his 0.6 ha. Despite drilling to 100 metres, he could not find water. He has a debt of Rs 1.4 lakh and has no clue how he will clear it. The rig owner charged him Rs 80 per foot (0.3 metres) of drilling; the pipe, called casing, came for Rs 250 per 0.3 metres. He gave up after 100 metres as he had spent all his money. “Now I have to depend on the rains for paddy and sugarcane,” he said.

D Bheema Shankar Rao, deputy director of groundwater department, denied pressure on groundwater in the district. Groundwater in the 42 basins of the district was within the safe limit, and while the average groundwater level in the district during May was 8.2 metres, it was 5.57 metres in November, which was normal, he said.

With Visakhapatnam emerging as an industrial hub, organizations like Fishermen’s Youth Welfare Association led by T Sankar have launched a campaign against groundwater mining by industries. Last year, Sankar wrote to the chairman of the state Coastal Zone Management Authority and the member secretary of the state pollution control board alleging that Hetro Drugs, a pharma company, was drawing water at Rajayyapeta village turning the water in surrounding areas saline. He is awaiting reply.

There is an undercurrent in Tagarapuwalsa town, 25 km from Visakhapatnam, against Divi’s Laboratory. The pharma unit has set up a pump house with four borewells on the banks of the Gosthani, which serves the drinking water and irrigation needs of over a million people. Rao, though, said the unit had not polluted the river.

Source: Down To Earth

Water crisis hits paddy farmers

NIZAMABAD: While many of the districts in the state are reeling under heavy rains and floods, Nizamabad district seems to be facing a peculiar problem of water scarcity. The worst hit are the paddy farmers.

Agriculture department officials said paddy sowing has not crossed even 50 per cent of the target though the season would end on August 15. Confirming the worst fears, a farmer A Subbaiah of Varni mandal told TOI that the ryots were scared to cultivate paddy due to shortage of water.

"Only some farmers who have sufficient water in their borewells are opting for paddy," Subbaiah said. He further said a majority of the ryots were shifting towards irrigated dry (ID) crops like maize, jowar, soyabean and pulses.

While almost all projects in Telangana region received copious inflows following incessant rains, the water level in the district irrigation projects has hit dead storage level. "Except Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP), no other project has received water inflows," an irrigation official said.

Sources said paddy was sown only in 45,512 hectares as against 94,267 hectares of normal command area for the kharif season. Maize crop has almost reached the target with a sown area of 48,436 ha as against the target of 54,086 ha. Other crops like green gram (20,597 ha), black gram (16,149 ha), red gram (7,471 ha), soyabean (66,676 ha), cotton (17,746 ha) and turmeric (13,149 ha) have all crossed the targeted normal area cultivation.

Joint director, agriculture, Gulam Mohammed Samdani told TOI that farmers were using borewell water to cultivate paddy in the district. "Only a few farmers who were not interested in shifting their crop pattern had gone in for paddy," he said.

A ryot S Venkateshwar Rao of Renjal mandal said he used to cultivate paddy in the entire stretch of 10 acres when water from Nizamsagar project was available. "But now, I cannot cultivate paddy because of construction of Singur project in the upper reaches of Nizamsagar project," he bemoaned.

In view of taking Manjeera water to Hyderabad for drinking purposes, Singur balancing reservoir was built in Medak district. "Since the reservoir came into being, inflows into Nizamsagar have dwindled. The farmers are hit badly because of this," an irrigation expert said.

Water level in the Nizamasagar project is almost at dead storage. While it has 17.8 tmc storage capacity, only 760.74 mcft (not even 1 tmc) water is available. While 15.907 tmc of water is available in Singur as against its storage capacity of 30 tmc, all other small and medium projects like Pocharam, Koulasnala, Ramadugu, Singeetham and Kalyani are down in the dumps with the water level hitting rock-bottom.

Source: TOI 10 Aug 2010

'Govt overestimated water availability'

If this is true, it could change the entire economic direction of the country. A paper published by researchers from IIT-Delhi and Jamia Milia Islamia has claimed that the government has overestimated the utilisable water resources of the country by up to 88% and India had breached its water security levels way back in 1997-98 by overexploiting the resource.

Published in 'Current Science', India's leading science journal, the study by N K Garg of IIT-Delhi and Q Hassan of Jamia Milia Islamia claimed that the government overestimated water available for use by a whopping 66-88% by double accounting for the resource in their methodology.

The findings could be a wake up call for planners and have a huge impact on India's estimate of water resources, possibly leading to a recast of plans for regulation and development of power and irrigation schemes. The authors claimed, on the basis of four years of work, that India had only 668 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water compared to 1,110 BCM claimed by the Central Water Commission — less by 442 BCM. This is alarming considering that even the projected demand (and this is the lower side of projections) of 987 BCM cannot be met even after all the available water is exploited.

In water jargon, development of water resource refers to creating the structures to use different water resources — surface water or ground water. The entire water available in a country, in its rivers and under the ground, obviously cannot be used. The portion that hydrologists conclude can actually be extracted and put to use is referred to as "utilisable water resource". Over exploitation in any year implies extracting more water than is naturally recharged in the river basin in that year. "What the government has done is double accounting of one vital element of the water cycle and therefore ended up with an inflated figure. While the error looks simple, with the ground water data of the country being classified, it took us four years of digging and understanding the method of calculation to figure out this discrepancy," Garg, from the department of civil engineering, IIT-Delhi, told TOI.

Cutting through the reams of data and calculations mentioned in the paper, Garg explained, "During the lean period, the water in rivers that one sees is actually ground water as there is no rain at the time. But when the CWC calculated total utilisable water, it accounted for the water in the rivers at the time as surface water as well as ground water, leading to the inflated figures." It sounds so much a clerical mistake but A K Gosain, also from the civil engineering department of IIT-Delhi and on the PM's expert committee on climate change, said, "The trouble is all the data on ground water is classified and never released to even scientists. Nobody outside the government has been able to evaluate the statistics. Even when we were doing simulation studies to look at impact of climate change on our rivers, we had to use American data on Indian rivers to validate our results."

Source: TOI , 27 oct 2007

Kerala panel wants Coca Cola to pay for water damage

Beverage giant Coca Cola's bottling plant in Perumatty in Palakkad district has led to depletion of water resources, a Kerala assembly panel said Thursday and recommended that the multinational company pay compensation to the villagers.

Addressing reporters at the assembly complex, V. Surendran Pillai, chairman of the assembly's Petitions Committee, said the committee members visited Perumatty and found that the bottling plant has led to a decline in the water table. The plant was shut down in 2004 following sustained campaign by the villagers.

'We have recommended that in Palakkad district authorities should carefully look into proposals whenever licences are given to any new industry that uses water as a raw material. The government should come out with an industrial irrigation project for the benefit of the existing commercial industries. Moreover, we have asked for a speedy completion of a drinking water scheme at the Perumatty village council,' said Pillai.

The Coca Cola plant at Plachimada in Perumatty was set up in 1999. The sanction for the company to begin operations was given by the then Left Front government led by E.K. Nayanar.

The assembly committee report comes at a time when an expert panel headed by Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, constituted to assess the damages caused to the environment at Perumatty due to the bottling plant, is expected to submit its report any time now.

'We understand that the expert panel report is going to be submitted any time. We expect the government to do the needful once that report is submitted,' added Pillai.

The expert panel visited the surrounding areas of the plant on four occasions and held detailed talks with the villagers, but the soft drink giant did not accept the decision to form the expert panel and failed to appear before the panel.

Source: Sify News, 18,3,2010

Groundwater in 33% of India undrinkable

TOI, 12 March, 2010, NEW DELHI: Ground water in more than a third of Indian districts is not fit for drinking. The government, in reply to a parliamentary question, admitted that iron levels in ground water are higher than those prescribed in 254 districts while fluoride levels have breached the safe level in 224 districts.

The alarming situation could bring trouble for the government, which has promised to provide drinking water to all habitations by 2012 under the millennium development goals. While ground water is not the only source of drinking water that government utilises, it is one of the key supplies and the dependence on ground water has been increasing over years.

The government, in its reply, said salinity had risen beyond tolerance levels in 162 districts while arsenic levels were found higher than permissible limits in 34 districts.

States like Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat seemed to be worst affected. Twenty-one of the 26 districts of Gujarat were found to have dangerous salinity levels and 18 had breached safe fluoride levels. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) found 21 of 31 districts in the southern state of Karnataka to be contaminated with iron and 20 districts with higher levels of fluoride. In the case of Rajasthan, ground water in 27 districts was found to be too saline, 30 districts had higher levels of fluoride and 28 suffered from iron contamination.

The national capital does not fare any better, with five of its nine districts showing fluoride contamination and two showing salinity. Pockets of all the nine districts had high iron content.

While urban centres in the country deploy water treatment systems before supplying water to homes, the costs of cleaning up as well as chances of contamination remain. Removal of heavy metals like arsenic, though, remains a problem the government is unable to tackle where the source of water is only from the ground aquifers.

Experts have warned that lopsided water management has led to depletion of ground water aquifers and this, in many cases, has caused increasing contamination as people dig deeper into the ground to extract water. Cases of habitations that were provided drinking water sources based on ground water slipping back have also been highlighted recently.

High arsenic level in Pak Punjab

Rising level of arsenic in the drinking water is increasing becoming a serious threat for the residents of Pakistan's southern as cancer, still births, post-neonatal mortality are frequently being reported in the region.

A joint research carried out by Tokyo Institute of Technology and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) found that the water samples in the Southern Punjab were having arsenic level above 10 ppb of the WHO standards.

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a standard of 10 ppb for safe drinking water in respect of arsenic whereas the level of fluorides should be less that 1.5 ppm," The Nation quoted Dr. Attiqur Rehman, postdoctoral research fellow at AIST, as saying.

Dr Attiq further said that it was a matter of great concern that even in cities like Lahore, where the WASA claimed the provision of high quality of water, the level of arsenic was almost five times higher than the WHO standards.

Source: March 1. 2010