Want a Coca Cola? No thanks!

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It had to happen sooner or later, talking about Coca Cola.
The symbol of "Made in the USA" is not having easy times in India. The community opposition to the exploitation of massive sources of fresh water for the bottling of soft drinks for the multinational Atlanta gave the go-ahead to a campaign that in a few years spread a stain of oil throughout the country, till it obtained the closure of one of the main plants.

The Indian movement against Coca-Cola has become a firmly rooted presence involving hundreds of thousands of people. In India, 70 percent of the inhabitants base their livelihood on agriculture and hence on the availability of water. The communities living next to the bottling plants of the multinational plants have, in few decades, suffered the gradual contamination of the territory and a progressive lack of water, caused by the large quantities of fresh water necessary for the processing of beverages. The impact of these factors has mainly affected the most vulnerable communities: indigenous peoples, women, disadvantaged social classes, small farmers, landless sharecroppers own, all people who have suffered the loss of traditional livelihoods and food security.
The impoverishment of local water reserves has put entire communities in serious danger.

In addition, Coca-Cola is accused of having distributed toxic waste as fertilizer to farmers living next to the plants. The long-term consequences of exposure to toxic residues cannot yet be calculated, but Coca-Cola is guilty of having contaminated soils and both ground and surface water, as well as having sold drinks with high levels of toxicity.
Following a study conducted by CSE (Centre for Science and Environment), December 7 2004, the Supreme Court of India has imposed on the multinational an obligation to label every package warning of danger to consumers.

Coca Cola has become a worldwide example of bad management of resources, and demonstrated that it operates in total violation of the criteria of social and environmental responsibility causing poverty, disease and contamination.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)

The Italians you didn't expect

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ACEA spa is a public share company, 51 percent of which is owned by the City of Rome. ACEA’s main function should be to guarantee the right to water of the citizens of Rome, but it prefers to build incinerators and promote policies of water privatisation in many countries of the southern world. Some say wild privatisation but indeed the privatization of water is always just wild!

Those who have read only a bit of the social problems related to the scarcity of water in the world will have heard of the French SUEZ, the second manager of water services worldwide. For ten years SUEZ has been controlling 8.6% of ACEA. SUEZ policy has only one goal: transforming water all over the world into a commodity like any other. Cool!
But you can not live without water more than three days and in spite of this SUEZ prevent access to water to millions of people throughout the world. ACEA denies the right to water in Armenia, Peru and Honduras, where since 2004 the local population have been opposing the privatization imposed by the Italian company. In recent weeks, ACEA has cut its potable water service to all Honduras poorest, those who could not find the means to pay two consecutive bills, suggesting to buy bottles of Frasassi mineral water, bottled near the caves of the same name in Italy, by the same ACEA.

Privatisation of water is unacceptable. Everywhere!
Water is a right and not a business.

Bruno Picozzi (in translation)