Mylamma  was an adivasi woman , a resident of Vijayanagar colony  in Plachimada village, in Kerala.  Do a google search for the word “Plachimada” and one realizes that this little village has already become an international example of the on-going struggles all over the world,  between ordinary citizens and big- time corporates.

       The Plachimada  protest is against the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. , which established its bottling plant in Perumatty Panchayat, in Palakkad District. The story is one of ground water depletion and surface pollution. British Broadasting Corporation had featured it twice. The following is extracted from a report on the subject, that featured in the “Pipal Tree”, on the 15^th of May, this year.

     “They came to our village with glittering offers; that our people would get many job opportunities in the plant; the overall development of our village would be taken care of; the economic growth of the area would be strengthened etc. We waited and waited… nothing miraculous happened. On the contrary, six months went by, slowly we started facing the reverse effects. Except a few, nobody from the locality was given jobs. The water level in the wells of the surrounding colonies showed a sharp depletion. The quality of the water -its odour, taste, hardness- got worsened. It became non-potable. We stopped using it. We were forced to fetch water from a distance of three to five kilometres. Several uncommon diseases started showing their neck out. The farmers around the plant stopped cultivation due to severe shortage of water. This was another thunderbolt on us that took away our daily little earnings. We were forced to migrate to faraway lands, seeking for some work or other to make our living. Suddenly we felt terribly helpless, facing the fact that we were being robbed. Our precious water resource had been stolen… lakhs of liters every day… Where would I get some fresh and pure drinking water any more? How many kilometers should we have to walk to fetch a drop of water? Who will compensate the heavy loss incurred upon us by this giant plant?”

           These are the words of Mylamma, who had been leading the Plachimada protest till she died earlier on, this year. She was suffering from psoriasis and the fatigue wrought by her continuous hard work in keeping the protest alive, probably aggravated her condition and she finally succumbed.

     Plachimada is situated in the heart of Kerala’s water belt and has large underground water deposits. The site is surrounded by colonies, where several hundred poor people live in crowded conditions. The sole source of employement is wage labour, usually for not more than 100 to 120 days in a year. With the license granted by the local council, the Perumatty panchayat, Coco- Cola bought a property of 40 acres, in Plachimada, from a couple of large landowners, built a plant, sunk  bore wells and commenced operations in 1999.

       Within six months, the villagers, saw the level of their water drop sharply, even run dry. The water they did draw, caused diarrhoea and bouts of dizziness. When used for washing , the water gave them rashes and a burning skin. It left their hair greasy and sticky. The women found that the rice and dal didn’t get cooked, but became hard. A thousand families had become directly affected. The pollution came from the sludge, Coca Cola  dumped in the area surrounding its plant, which the BBC had tested and declared to have a high content of cadmium and nickel. Coke was passing it off as fertilizer.    

       On April 22, 2002, the locals, led by Mylamma and other tribal leaders, launched a peaceful agitation. The Panchayat rescinded the licence on August 7^th, 2003. The Plant was shut down.

       Under the Indian constitution,, the legislature of a state may endow the panchayat with the necessary powers and authority to function as an institution of self government. The Panchayat’s decision was based on Section 232 of the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, giving the local body sufficient authority to notify that no place within its jurisdiction shall be used for purposes offensive or dangerous to human life or health. That the continued activities of the Coca Cola Plant was leading to water contamination , had also been upheld by reports of the Kerala State health department.

       However, the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act also allows an entrepreneur to appeal to the Government of Kerala against the decision of the panchayat.

      In the case filed by the Hindustan coca cola Beverages, the High Court of Kerala, in a ruling that surprised many, said  that the Coca Cola Plant could  extract up to 5 lakhs litres of water per day. The High Court ruled that the Perumatty Panchayat had 15 days to reconsider the application. This means that the Coca Cola has to apply again to the Perumatty Panchayat for a license to operate. The Perumatty Panchayat issued a statement that they would approach the Supreme Court. As of now, the plant remains closed and the protest continues. On October 12^th, 2007, the people’s struggle against Coca Cola, completed 2000 days.

     The following observations from a report in the “South Asian”, is very relevant.

        “ Even beyond the protocols of justice, rests the question of justice itself. Do people have a right to those aspects of the Earth that sustain life – water, clean air, food? Can any justification that takes away such access be ethical and humane? Can the courts that deliver justice claim such decisions as just? Is it justice to allow a company making millions of dollars of profits continue to drain about a million liters of water a day when the water of the local community continues to become increasingly non-potable?

A related question, and a very significant one, asks who owns water. One Constitutional interpretation argues that people own water; the government is but the trustee of that ownership for the people it represents. Can the courts give what is not theirs?

And while the courts can claim to be the sole interpreters of the laws and our Constitution, the people are the owners of our Constitution – for it is a Constitution that we the people have given to ourselves. And that Constitution says that we are a socialist India – an India that is committed to working towards ensuring that people are able to meet their basic needs. As per the very Constitution, the role of the government in ensuring access of these basic needs is unquestionable. But we have a ruling here that actually makes it impossible for communities to have access to resources for their very sustenance – just so that a company with a global track record of unethical behavior can continue to make humongous profits producing and selling a product that is intrinsically unhealthy.”

If interested to read further, here are some more links:

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04162005.html

http://www.sasnet.lu.se/plachimada.pdf

You may also listen to what Medha Patkar has to say , on the following link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSTSEUqLz4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftechnorati%2Ecom%2Fvideos%2Fyoutube%2Ecom%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DUsSTSEUqLz4