Friends of the Earth India stands in solidarity with the people of Plachimada in Kerala, India, who have been waiting for years for the compensation to the losses they have suffered due to Coca Cola Company’s plant in the region, and raises serious objection on Coca Cola’s sponsorship to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, CoP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and demands immediate withdrawal of Coca Cola as a main sponsor.

Plachimada, a remote village in Palakkad district of Kerala is situated in the Palakkad Gap in the Western Ghats mountain ranges. Hence, the place receives substantially less rainfall compared to other places in the state. The state has very low ground water potential and the available resource is over exploited in the Palakkad Gap region due to semi-arid conditions.  The Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCBPL) plant at Plachimada started its operation in 1999. In the five years of its operations until the plant stopped functioning in May 2004, it had badly destroyed the social and environmental fabric of the region. Click here to read the full statement.