Comment From The Coca-Cola Company On The Christian Aid Report

These assumptions appear to have been taken from a collection of media reports rather than from first-hand research. Nobody from Christian Aid visited this operation in the preparation of this report.

More importantly, the report fails to give credit to the considerable efforts of this plant for setting the standards of water use in the State of Kerala, if not the entire country.

This Coca-Cola plant now recharges the aquifers with the equivalent of all of its water needs and within months it will be recharging two to three times more than it uses. It will become a net contributor to the local water supply. No other industrial operation in this State has even begun to adopt any rainwater harvesting technology.

Bottled water is not produced at the plant as the report suggests. Also, free water supplies are provided by the plant to local villagers on a daily basis from water purified in the plant, not from water that is shipped to the villagers from other locations as the report states.

On the matter of bio-solid waste, ten independent and government tests over three years have proved this substance to be safe and its treatment as hazardous waste is cautious in the extreme by the Company.

It is disappointing that Christian Aid has chosen to highlight an operation that has arguably done more than any other industrial unit in the State in order to publicize its agenda.

The door remains open for Christian Aid and others to visit this plant to see the real story for themselves.

For more detailed information about the Company's operations in India, please visit the Coca-Cola India websites:

http://www.coca-colaindia.com