Belching Out the Devil (51 page)

 

Techno Serve is an NGO dedicated to the development of businesses who work in the agricultural field. We partnered with Techo Serve to financially support the programs that aid children through educational opportunities in El Salvador.

 

Are there any plans to do this and if so, what is your timetable?
Our Company's Supplier Guiding Principles (SGP) communicate to direct suppliers our values and expectations and emphasize the importance of responsible environmental and workplace policies and practices that comply, at a minimum, with applicable local laws and regulations. Our SGP is consistent with the key elements of the International Labor Organization of the UN's core labor standards (freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced or compulsory labor, child labor and discrimination).

The Company and its bottling partners provide direct employment to more than 10,000 people in India. In addition, soft drinks being a seasonal business in India, the Company and its bottling partners also employ nearly 10,000 contractor's workmen during the peak season (summer season). This positive economic impact is multiplied by the employment generated through our chain of distributors and retailers, through our vendors and suppliers, through the transporters, signage painters, point of purchase and other marketing material designers and
manufacturers etc. As per an estimate by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) the soft drink industry generates an overall employment of 1,300 for every 1 million cases sold.

 

In order to fuel economic development in remote areas, the governments of all states set up Industrial areas to encourage industries to invest in economically undeveloped/underdeveloped areas. The government gives financial incentives such as tax exemptions of 5-7 years etc. as per the policy. The Coca-Cola plant at Kaladera was given sales tax exemption as per the Industrial policy of the Rajasthan State government.

 

 

Coca-Cola in India has undertaken a range of water conservation and awareness programs across the country. These programs are undertaken in partnership with Central Ground Water Authority, State Ground Water Boards, Resident Welfare Associations, Market Welfare Associations, Schools and Colleges, Industry Associations, NGOs and local communities. In Rajasthan also the Company has undertaken a range of water conservation initiatives like revival of traditional water bodies, installation of rainwater recharge shafts, rooftop rainwater harvesting projects etc. These projects have been undertaken under the guidance of Rajasthan State Ground Water Board. Thus, while there is formal relationship that exists between Rajasthan State Ground Water Board (RSGWB) and the Company, RSGWB focuses on initiatives that could enhance groundwater levels and hence have provided guidance to our rainwater harvesting initiatives in the state and have also assessed them periodically.

 

The Company has installed 143 recharge shafts in Kaladera and surrounding areas spread over an area of 17 sq. KMS

 

The RWH schemes are monitored through defined protocols. For any location, before establishing any Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) system, studies are done with respect to area available for recharge, average annual rainfall, the type water harvesting area (to determine the coefficient of recharge) and any assumptions/considerations made in site selection. The site selection would depend on ground water situation, infiltration capacity of the local hydrogeology, and need for RWH intervention, including the ownership of such intervention. The established technical feasibility is vetted by local government or research agency involved with water resource management and the designs are finalized. The structures are executed by expert agencies and its completeness is verified by the competent technical experts. Usually, the executing agency is a local NGO group and would have responsibility to maintain the developed structure for period of three years initially. We have also developed a monitoring protocol to maintain the structures on annual basis to understand its full functionality and usefulness. Each year the incident rainfall data is obtained from nearest government meteorological observatory at the end of the year and the estimated recharge potential is revalidated by inserting the appropriate value of rainfall.

In addition, the Company undertakes regular maintenance of most of the structures with help of NGOs/ environmental groups. The Company, along with community/NGO, tries to take water table readings before and after monsoon, keeps historical data, conduct community interviews, facilitate media visits to understand the efficacy and impact of such projects besides site visits by its own high-ranking officials.

Besides the above, rising water level, non requirement to re-drill the borewells, functioning of defunct borewells, higher agriculture yield etc have been reported by communities across the country which serves as the community's own assessment of the impact of RWH.

 

The recharge shafts provide a pathway to the collected rainwater to flow into the ground through a reverse filter system and recharge the ground water. Each shaft has a diameter of 2 feet and average depth of about 105 feet. While the catchment area is different for different locations, each shaft receives water from approximately 10-15 hectares. Each shaft goes to a depth of over 100 feet below the ground and is filled with filter media to enable quick recharge of the ground water.

 

Our rainwater harvesting through recharge shafts started in 2004. In Kaladera, the rainwater harvesting systems that the Company has installed have the potential to recharge about 15 times the amount of water the plant uses currently, assuming normal rainfall (560 mm/year). Even in recent years when rainfall has been below average, actual recharge has been more than 5 times the amount of water used for production of our beverages. (See attached report by the former Chief Engineer of Rajasthan State Ground water Department)

Besides the Company's efforts at monitoring the RWH projects in partnership with NGOs etc as mentioned above, senior hydrogeologists of State Ground water department have been independently monitoring the RWH initiatives. A former chief engineer of Rajasthan State Ground Water Board had independently assessed potential of the same (copy attached). Need this report [sic] Most recently TERI has assessed our water management practices including RWH projects in Kaladera area.

 

In fact there are four educational institutions are covered under roof water harvesting in Kaladera locations. The total roof area covered is about 6,400 square metres and the design RWH potential at average annual rain fall is about 3,400 cubic metres.

The monitoring activity is detailed under question 8 [sic] above.

 

There are accepted norms as adhered by Central Ground Water Board, UN agencies, Govt. bodies for estimating RWH potential from different surfaces. While for roof top a coefficient between 80-85% is well accepted (given that recharge pit/well/shaft is designed to receive that quantity of water) and for surface water coefficients between 10-20% are accepted, depending on land use/topography, intensity of rainfall, nature of soil etc.

Even with most conservative estimate for catchment of 0.1 sq KM for each shaft and a coefficient of 10%, these shafts would receive over 850 million litres of water.

 

The TERI report notes that the Company is a relatively small user of water in Kaladera, tapping far less than one percent the area's available water. In Kaladera, the rainwater harvesting systems Coca-Cola has installed have the potential to recharge about 15 times the amount of water the plant uses currently, assuming normal rainfall (560 mm/year). Even in recent years when rainfall has been below average, actual recharge has been more than 5 times the amount of water used for production of our beverages. Coca-Cola has reduced its water use ratio within the plant by more than 40% over the last five years. The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has recognized the Hindustan Coca-Cola Kaladera plant as a ‘Water Efficient Unit' across industries at the National Awards for Excellence in Water Management. The Kaladera plant also has won the ‘Innovative Project Award' for its contribution towards reduction in specific water consumption.

 

The wastewater is treated at the wastewater treatment plant at the manufacturing facility prior to use of treated wastewater for irrigating developed greenbelt at the plant premises. The treated wastewater complies with both the company and local standard on the wastewater treatment and disposal. The wastewater treatment plant is designed to treat 1000 m3/day wastewater, while average wastewater generation does not exceed more than 120 m3/day on an average. The overcapacity of the wastewater plant, resultant of the water conservation measures taken by the plant over the period ensures the consistent quality of the wastewater from the treatment plant.

The treated wastewater is monitored in-house as well as external laboratory as per below mentioned frequency

 

The Company's bottling plant at Kaladera plant uses groundwater (borewells located inside the plant) as source of water. The groundwater within the plant is monitored on annual basis which has hardly shown any deterioration in quality over the period of time. External borewells at upstream and downstream are being monitored (since last 2 years) pre monsoon and post monsoon for quality of groundwater which has shown hardly any deterioration in the quality.