Traders in India are boycotting Coca-Cola en masse after the soda giant was caught draining the country’s scarce water resources. Over one million traders in India have vowed to boycott fizzy drinks manufacturers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and will replace them with locally produced soft drinks instead. The Guardian reports: “These foreign companies are using up scarce water resources of the state,” said K Mohan, secretary of the Vanigar Sangam, one of the associations supporting the boycott. Concerns about excessive water usage by companies such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were heightened after low rainfall during the last monsoon. In January, Tamil Nadu’s interim chief minister O Panneerselvam declared the state “drought-hit” and asked the central government for funds to help farmers. Vikram Raja, president of the Vanigar Sangam trade association, said: “[Foreign companies] are exploiting the state’s water bodies to manufacture aerated drinks while farmers were facing severe drought.” Amit Srivastava, director at the NGO India Resource Centre, estimates that it takes 1.9 litres of water to make one small bottle of Coca-Cola. He says demand for sugar from fizzy drinks companies is also hugely problematic in India. “Sugarcane is a water-guzzling crop. It is the wrong crop for India,” [...]
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