Jal Adhikar Yatra (March for Right to Water) began in Mehdiganj, Varanasi, on September 10, 2006, and shall conclude in Delhi on October 5, 2006. This is led by people directly ill-effected by Coca Cola Plant in Mehdiganj who are demanding access to water and protection from indiscriminate siphoning of water by large companies.

Corporations like those of Coke and Pepsi, have been siphoning away huge quantities (Lakhs of litres of water every day) natural resources like water, and thereby depriving
local communities to have access to ground water. Besides the waste released by these corporations into the fields of farmers, have made the fields barren and adversely affected the fertility of the soil.

CSE as well as Joint Parliamentary Committee report of Government of India had found pesticides at dangerous levels in bottled soft drinks. For the first time, people from communities directly affected by water privatization, from Mehdiganj (Varanasi), Ballia, Jaunpur, Faizabad, Barabanki, Kaladhera (Jaipur) and other regions have come
together and taking out a march to Delhi.

On September 15^th, around 300 people from the community and the Jal Adhikar Yatra
activists joined to protest against the local Coca-Cola plant in Faizabad. The Jal Adhikar yatra activists were warmly received by the communities on their arrival to Faizabad. In the protest rally, the activists highlighted the water depletion by Coca-Cola plant that is
drying the Mehndiganj and surrounding villages and the pollution of toxic heavy metals by the Coca-Cola pant in Mehndiganj. The communities demanded the closure of Coca-Cola plant. Later in the afternoon, a meeting was organized in the local university by the
local ISA(Indian Student Association) group and the Jal Adhikar yatra activists. Supporting the meeting were local dignitaries Dinesh Singh, Gopal, Shah Alam, Indrajit and Bansilal Yadav. A meeting was also organized to highlight the issues related to water policies and water privatization and the local district magistrate Mr. Amod Kumar
participated in this meeting.

On September 16^th, A protest was organized in front of Coca-Cola plant of Barabanki by
the local groups and Jal Adhikar Yatra activists. Later a meeting was organized in the local college of Sultanpur. Supporting the yatra and meeting were local student union and local leaders Mannulal Chaurasia of ISA, Anup Saya of Lok Tantrik Samajwadi Party, Sanjay Singh and others. A signature campaign was also initiated in all the colleges. So far 1000 signatures have been collected. The campaign pledges the support to the struggle for water and a promise to stop drinking Coke or Pepsi's soft drinks.

Protests were organized in front of Coca-Cola plant in Barabanki and Pepsi plant in Sathariya, Jaunpur by local organizations and activisits on the 17th and 18th September. The Pepsi plant was heavily guarded by police who refused to allow the activists to come near the plant. About 200-250 people were present in the rally and the protests.

Meetings were also organized in colleges and in market places in these towns to sensitize the youth on the impact of soft drinks industries in the communities where they are based. Signatures were collected from the community with the pledge not to drink any soft drinks produced by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. A press conference was organized in Jaunpur on the yatra.

Supporting the yatra were local groups and leaders such as Daulat Ramji of Dalit Bharatiya Jan Seva Ashram, Sachin Agarwal fro Society for Peoples change and enforcement, Nishant of Lok Tantra Bachao Abhiyan, Ajaykumar, Anif Astana, Ramesh (Advocate), Arif Habib, Pramod Misra, Arvind, Sunil Agarwal and Azad Bachao Andolan.

Meanwhile, Deccan Herald has reported on the depletion of water in UP. Pointing to the dropping water table it comments:

Random survey results revealed that 44 per cent of the 97 wells had dried up. Of these, 25 per cent had dried up as soon as Coke became operational in 2000. Also, 86 per cent wells had a water level of 40 feet; by 2006 the numbers had dropped to 32 per cent. Similarly, 43 per cent of the 220-odd handpumps had dried up.

In 2003, the Central Pollution Control Bord gathered water samples from villages around the plant and found concentration of heavy metals, including chromium, lead and cadmium above the permissible limit of 50 mg per litre in five of the seven samples.

The NAPM report said the concentration of heavy metals has gone up further — between 65 mg and 75 mg — in eight villages within a 3-km radius of the plant. Under the Right to Information Act, Magsaysay Award-winner Sandeep Pandey wrote to the Central Pollution Control Board, asking why the Mehndiganj plant was still functional. The one in Plachimada, Kerala, had been shut down because it violated pollution laws, he pointed out.

“The board responded saying that it had instructed the plant to dispose off sludge in a safe manner,” said Pandey incredulously. The cola giant followed the instruction by allegedly dumping waste into the deeper wells, polluting the ground water.

The march continues to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where it will join local communities in Kaladera opposing the draining of water from a desert state by the local Coke plant.