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''THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE'' CAMPAIGN HITS HOME AT COCA-COLA ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING Coke Meeting is a Site of Major Protest as International Pressure on Soft Drink Giant Builds For Immediate Release: Contacts by cell phone in Wilmington: WILMINGTON, DE--Today, activists are challenging Coke shareholders and Wilmington residents to take the Tap Water Challenge at the footsteps of Coke's annual shareholders' meeting. Over one thousand people in more than a dozen cities across the U.S. have taken the Tap Water Challenge since March 21st, the day before the UN's World Water Day. Corporate Accountability International's "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign, which has reached millions of people in the past four weeks, is challenging the marketing muscle of Coke and other leading bottled water corporations. As Coke attempts to compensate for weak soft drink sales by expanding its bottled water market, the corporation faces growing resistance. Across the US, people have been shocked to learn that Coke's popular Dasani water brand actually uses tap water as its source. Avid Dasani drinkers are among the 50% of all Americans who drink bottled water. One in six people in the US drink only bottled water, even though gallon for gallon it can cost more than gasoline. According to Corporate Accountability International, this trend is driven by misleading advertising. "Coke promotes Dasani water as pure, safe, healthy and superior to tap water, even though bottled water is less regulated than tap water, and sometimes less safe," says Corporate Accountability International Executive Director Kathryn Mulvey. "This is about more than price gouging. Our human right to water is at stake," says Polaris Water Program Director Karl Flecker. According to the United Nations, two out of three people will not have access to water in less than two decades. "Problems of water scarcity and access loom larger as a profit-driven industry increasingly controls our water supplies," continues Flecker. Supplying water is currently a $400 billion a year business, 30% larger than the pharmaceutical industry. "Think Outside the Bottle" highlights bottled water as the most visible example of increasing corporate control of water. Even though bottled water accounts for a fraction of the total volume of water used for consumption, sanitation, and manufacturing, people spent $100 billion on bottled water in 2005. That's three times more than the amount of money necessary to reach the U.N.'s millennium development goal of halving the number of people without access to water by 2015, and seven times more than the international community has committed to hitting that goal. Corporate accountability groups sounded the alarm last month, when Coke made a visible move to increase its influence on global water policies. In March, Coke sponsored the Fourth World Water Forum, a private international gathering where corporations met with officials from the United Nations, World Bank and governments to try to shape water policies around the world. Inside today's meeting, Coke executives are being challenged directly for selling people a bill of goods, positioning bottled water as healthy, when in reality it threatens people's health and the environment, and undermines local democratic control over a common resource. In a number of Indian communities, where Coke is draining massive amounts of water to sell as bottled water and to make soft drinks, resistance to the corporation's irresponsible and dangerous actions is growing. Last month community leaders in Mehdiganj launched a major indefinite action, including a vigil, calling on Coke to close its bottling plant there. In Plachimada, where activists and community leaders are marking the fourth anniversary of the movement challenging Coke, the bottling plant has been closed since March 2004. The Sisters of Notre Dame from the Chardon, Ohio Province have collected 2,100 postcards, challenging the irresponsible and dangerous actions of bottled water corporations. "We have a large community of Indian Sisters serving in Kerala, who have told us about the distress caused to poor people by the actions of Coca-Cola and its excessive use of ground water," explains Sr. Nancy McDermott. "Instead of respecting water as a fundamental human right, Coke promotes it as a commodity to be bought and sold." On behalf of activists across the country, Sr. Nancy delivered thousands of concerned public comments to Coke CEO Neville Isdell. "Coke siphons massive amounts of water from poor, water stressed communities without regard for scarcity or human rights," says Kirankumar Vissa, an Indian activist based in Maryland. "Coke goes to great lengths to portray itself as a steward of the world's water resources, while it is actually wreaking havoc on communities across India." William Wardlaw working with Harrington Investments, a major owner of Coca-Cola stock and grandson to one of Coke's first investors, filed a shareholders' resolution calling for an independent report on the impact of Coke's plants on people's health and the environment in water scarce Indian communities. Anil Venkatesh, a student at the University of Pennsylvania who has run Tap Water Challenges at his university, delivers a message sure to strike a nerve with many Coke investors: "Mr. Isdell, your corporation's image is becoming increasingly tarnished among college students." He asks the corporation's leadership, "How are the effects of this potential long-term damage accounted for and reflected in your financial statements?" Corporate Accountability International joins with a broad range of people and organizations around the world who are challenging Coke. # # # Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations--like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria--to stop abusive actions. For more information visit www.stopcorporateabuse.org.
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