This refers to the transcript of the interview with Dr. Vandana Shiva on September 5, 2003, put up on your website www.pbs.org.

Our bottling plant located in the Palakkad district of Kerala does not consume 1.5 million litres of water every day. The actual average daily water requirement is only 0.5 million litres.

The groundwater water shortage in the area is due to less-than-normal rainfall in the area during the last two years and not due to drawing of groundwater by our plant. The government records from the meteorological station located at Meekara Dam, within a five kilometer distance of our plant, show that in the year 2001 the district received only 57. 5 per cent of the average rainfall received during 1998-2000. The figure dropped to just about 43 per cent in 2002.

We have also set up three rainwater harvesting ponds within our plant premises and they can collectively hold 27 million litres of water, equal to nearly two month's water requirement, at any given point in time. Our proactive steps to conserve rainwater and use it to recharge the groundwater reserves has already led to an increase in the levels of groundwater in the area.

The plant does not produce bottled drinking water.

It has the necessary licence from the local village Panchayat (local self-government).

The plant and all associates of the company at Palakkad live and work in close harmony and partnership with communities around.

We request you to correct the wrong information and misleading comments about the Coca-Cola plant in Kerala, which operates in compliance with all the rules and regulations prescribed by the regulatory authorities at all levels - Central, State and Panchayat.

Thanking You

Sincerely

Vikas Kochhar
Coca-Cola India