Indian PM: Floods ‘a national calamity’

The River of Sorrow, Kosi River, Breaches its Banks

About 55 people have died and at least two million others have fled their homes after massive floods inundated India’s eastern state of Bihar, said local officials.

Flood affected villagers board boats to move to relief camps in Madhepura District in Bihar state, India, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008. The death toll from this year’s monsoon has already climbed past 800, and now some 1.2 million people have been marooned, and about 2 million more affected in the impoverished state of Bihar, where the Kosi river has burst its banks, breached safety embankments and submerged all roads leading to the region. (AP Photo/Aftab Alam Siddiqui). Image may be subject to copyright.

An aerial view shows the Kosi river flooding the villages in east Nepal August 23, 2008. Indian army troops helped evacuate more than 120,000 people from floods in eastern India, but more bad weather raised fears that rivers would to continue to overflow, officials said on Thursday. The flooding, which officials say are the worst in 50 years, was caused after the Kosi river broke a dam in Nepal where it originates, unleashing huge waves of water that smashed mud embankments downstream in Bihar state. Photo taken August 23, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer (NEPAL). Image may be subject to copyright.

An aerial view of a flood affected Madhepura town is seen, in north Bihar state, India, Wednesday, Aug.27, 2008. Indian officials rushed soldiers and air force helicopters Wednesday to flood-ravaged parts of northern India to provide aid to the more than 1 million people stranded by a surging river. The death toll from this year’s monsoon has already climbed past 800, and now some 1.2 million people have been marooned, and about 2 million more affected in the impoverished state of Bihar, where the Kosi river has burst its banks, breached safety embankments and submerged all roads leading to the region.
(AP Photo/Aftab Alam Siddiqui). Image may be subject to copyright.

An aerial view shows a damaged and submerged railway track in the flood-affected area of Kusaha in the eastern Indian state of Bihar August 27, 2008. The Kosi river in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, smashed through mud embankments and changed course last week, unleashing huge walls of water that inundated hundreds of villages and towns. Food riots also erupted on Wednesday in eastern India, where more than two million people have been forced from their homes and about 250,000 houses destroyed in what officials say are the worst floods in 50 years. Photo: BBC/AFP. Caption: Reuters. Image may be subject to copyright.

A New Wave of Food Riots Swamps South Asia Amid Floods

Food riots as floods swamp South Asia

By Sharat Pradhan

Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:24am EDT

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) – Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes.

People take shelter at the road side as floodwaters from the Saptakoshi River created havoc in Sunsari August 21, 2008. Wednesday.REUTERS/Jitendra Khadka. Image may be subject to copyright.

Rising rivers have crumpled embankments, swamped farmlands and destroyed homes, killing almost 1,000 people since the monsoon rains began in June. More …

Stranded people make their way through flood waters in the eastern Indian state of Bihar August 22, 2008. Flood victims demanding food and shelter beat up government officials in India on Friday as monsoon rains spread misery among millions of people across South Asia and forced thousands from their homes.  REUTERS/Krishna Murari Kishan. Image may be subject to copyright.

Season’s Death Toll

• India: about 1,000 people;
• Nepal: up to 100;
• Bangladesh as many as 50.

Other casualty

• Up to 10,000 flood victims treated for water-borne diseases.

Displaced

• Up to one half of a million people have been displaced in Bangladesh, Nepal and India in last week alone.

Related News Links

• Food riots as floods swamp South Asia

Coca-Cola Plant Shut Down in India

Community Welcomes Decision, Company Cites “Unbearable” Financial Losses

For Immediate Release
August 14, 2008

New Delhi (August 14, 2008): The India Resource Center can confirm that the Coca-Cola company has shut down another bottling plant in India – in Sinhachawar in Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh.

A community-led campaign had demanded the closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Sinhachawar because of indiscriminate pollution by the bottling plant as well as illegal occupation of land.

The India Resource Center had led a fact finding team to the plant in June 2007 and found shocking incidences of pollution that were in complete violation of environmental laws and regulations in India.

While the community knew that the plant had been un-operational since the fact finding visit, this is the first official confirmation of the closure.

The bottling plant in Sinhachawar was a Coca-Cola franchisee owned unit operated by the Brindavan Bottlers Limited, which is owned by India’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola, the Ladhani Group of Companies.

In a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board dated October 27, 2007, Brindavan Bottlers informed the Board about the closure of the plant due to “huge” and “unbearable” financial losses.

The letter was dated three days after a major protest at the plant.

“We welcome the official closure of the bottling plant which we had demanded. We will now hold Coca-Cola accountable for the damages they have caused in the area because of their negligence,” said Mrs. Chinta Dewi, sarpanch (head of the village council) and member of the locally based Coca-Cola Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Get Rid of Coke, Save Farming Struggle Committee).

Another Coca-Cola bottling plant – in Plachimada in Kerala – has been shut down since March 2004 due to community opposition.

“Community campaigns in India have shut down Coca-Cola bottling plants in Plachimada and in Balia, and now we will ensure that Coca-Cola bottling plants in Mehdiganj and Kala Dera also meet the same fate,” said Nandlal Master of Lok Samiti, a community group challenging Coca-Cola’s operations in Mehdiganj, near Varanasi. Lok Samiti worked very closely with the community in Sinhachawar towards the plant’s closure.

The Coca-Cola company is also the target of intense community campaigns in Mehdiganj and Kala Dera in India for creating water shortages and pollution. The company was forced to agree to an assessment of its bottling operations in India as a result of a sustained international campaign. The assessment, released in January 2008, was a damning indictment of Coca-Cola’s water management practices in India. The assessment recommends that Coca-Cola shut down its bottling plant in Kala Dera because the plant contributes significantly to water shortages in the area.

“The Coca-Cola company has chosen to embark on an ambitious public relations drive to paint a green image of itself globally. But Coca-Cola’s track record on the ground in India is one of dismal environmental and human rights problems, and no amount of public relations can solve the problems it continues to create in India,” said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center, an international campaigning organization that works directly with communities in India to challenge Coca-Cola.

The fact finding team in June 2007 found several cases of pollution, including:

• The bottling plant has indiscriminately dumping its sludge, considered to be industrial hazardous waste, across the plant premises, in complete violation of the laws regarding handling and disposal of industrial hazardous waste in India.
• The Effluent Treatment Plant was non-operational, and the bottling plant was discharging its wastewater into surrounding agricultural fields and a canal that feeds into the river Ganges.
• The plant did not disclose the amount of hazardous waste being used and generated, as required by the Supreme Court of India for all industrial units in India that deal with hazardous waste.

The full report with images can be found at http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/cokebaliafact.html, in Hindi at http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/baliahindireport.pdf

For more information, visit www.IndiaResource.org

Contacts:
Chinta Dewi, Coca-Cola Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti +91 94507 79325 (Hindi)
Nandlal Master, Lok Samiti +91 94153 00520 (Hindi)
Amit Srivastava, India Resource Center +91 98103 46161 (India) +1 415 336 7584 (US)

—ends—

Do the Poor Have Human Rights?

What Has Soaring Food and Fuel Prices Got to Do with Human Rights?

Whose fault is it If the poor can’t afford food? Give them more money and you create a bigger problem: Inflation.

It’s not the job of your government to control these things you know, they have more important things to do: National security and the Economy (!)

The poor don’t come with engines and wheels; you can’t drive them like cars. Why should they get all the grains at dirt cheap prices, when biofuels bring in a decent profit and help turn the wheels?

Neither the UN nor the so-called global relief organizations seem to care about the plight of the world’s poor. So, once again, do the poor have human rights?

Related Links:

• We Need Food!
• Rome food protesters demand rethink (Video report)
• Human right to food denied in Haiti: Preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission