With Kerala in the grip of a severe drought, the government on Wednesay said it will further restrict the use of groundwater by soft drink major PepsiCo at Palakkad even as traders have planned to stop the sale of Pepsi and Coca-Cola in the state.
“The government will take stern measures to restrict usage of groundwater due to prevailing drought and if possible stop PepsiCo from drawing it at its plant at Puthussery in Palakkad by using the power vested in it under the State Disaster Management Act,” Water Resources minister Mathew T Thomas told the Assembly. Under these special circumstances, the company has to reduce the use of water and the government would take all possible steps in this regard, Thomas said.
“Instead of foreign sodas, we will promote local beverages,” T Naseeruddin, the president of Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi, a trade body that claims membership of more than 700,000 retailers in Kerala, told Bloomberg. “We will announce the ban on 14 March,” he further said.
Meanwhile, PepsiCo rejected allegation of “misuse” of ground water and said abstraction of water by the company has not affected borewell, open well and groundwater discharge structures in any village around the plant.
In a related development, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan welcomed the move of traders and said government would extend support to the initiative to check the threat to exploitation of water, pollution and lifestyle diseases.
In a facebook post, Vijayan said traders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had already decided to stop the sale of Pepsi and Coca-Cola and “it is seen from media reports that traders in Kerala are also planning to take up this. It is expected that all traders will become part of this”, Vijayan said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)