.png)
AD – €560,000 Coca-Cola donation is ‘PR exercise covering water misuse’
General Soft Drinks donates €560,000 to Eco-Gozo for water project while extracting 50,000 cubic metres of water for free from its borehole.
16 September 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
3 min read
Alternattiva Demokratika has raised questions over a €560,000 donation to government for a water project in Gozo by the General Soft Drinks company – the representatives of Coca-Cola in Malta – on behalf of the Coca-Cola Foundation.
The funds are to be used on water project for the eco-Gozo project for the catchment and reuse of around 4-5 million litres of rainwater each year.
But the Green Party is saying that Coca-Cola’s representatives should have closed down the Qormi boreholes they use to extract water for their Marsa operations.
General Soft Drinks, bottler for Coca-Cola and producer of Kristal table water, extracts the equivalent of 26 million bottles of table water every year from the endangered water table, without being charged for this water because it has access to boreholes.
Carmel Cacopardo, AD spokesman on sustainable development, said GSD’s help would have been more effective in the national effort to protect the water table, as less water would be extracted.
AD chairman Michael Briguglio went a step further, saying the acceptance by government of donations from an interested party, on the eve of a decision on the control of extraction of water from the water table through the use of boreholes, conveys a very wrong message.
“The government would have been more credible if it had postponed acceptance of the donation until such time as it had formulated and published a clear policy on the use of boreholes to extract water from the water table.
“At present General Soft Drinks and other companies extract water from the public aquifer to use it to produce mineral water and soft drinks. If this unsustainable practice is redressed, AD would not query the involvement of Coca Cola in a water project in Gozo. But as long as this unsustainable practice persists, the donation sounds more like a public relations exercise to cover up this misuse of water resources,” Briguglio said.
AD also said that three government officials – namely, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, MEPA chairman Austin Walker and Malta Resources Authority chairman Reuben Balzan – have held or still hold high ranking positions within Mizzi Group, the parent company of General Soft Drinks.
Malta’s water table is already burdened by over-extraction from private boreholes, and risks becoming “unusable” by 2025 because of the increase of salinity in groundwater from borehole drilling.
General Soft Drinks, which admits to getting half its mix to produce table water from its three registered boreholes, was awarded the 2009 Environment Award for Industry by the university-based Cleaner Technology Centre.
Malta is already extracting 11 million cubic metres more than the sustainable rate of 23 million cubic metres, based on current rainfall patterns.
General Soft drinks has previously insisted it extracts “less than 0.15% of the 34 million cubic metres of groundwater extracted annually in Malta” from its three registered boreholes – which would amount to an annual 51,000 cubic metres (51 million litres).
GSD has also said it has reduced groundwater extraction by 66% in the past three years, as well as its overall water consumption.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
•
Mhux ahjar kieku l-Coca Cola taw dik is-somma lid-dipartiment ta' l-Ilma forsi jirrangaw l-ilma tal-VIT biex ma nibqawx nixtru ilma tal-flixken bhal per ezempju l-Ingilterra....dawn l-Inglizi jitkazaw kif l-ilma tal-vit f'Malta hu daqstant hazin............M'hux hekk ha jaghmlu tal-KOKA!!!!!!!???????...le taw lil-Eco Ghawdex.....Minn jaf ghalxiex????????!!!!!!!!
•
Tajba din. Jisirqulna l-ilma prezjuz u jbieghulna wara li jzidulu z-zokkor u salt kimici. Biex taghqad fid-diet drinks lanqas zokkor ma jkun hemm - imma l-Aspartame ta' Donald Rumsfeld... li jaghmel hafna hafna gid, tarax... Imma dwar dan ma jghidulna xejn ghax mhux sew titkellem dwarhom.
•
Moribund naqbel miegħek.
**
Kull ma qed jagħmlu jgħinu lil dawk li jibbottiljaw l-ilma jkomplu jeqirdu din l-għajn tant meħtieġa biex aħna jkollna nħallsu biz-zalza għall-ilma minħabba li jkollna nużaw ir-reverse osmosis.
**
Tal mistħija li kumpaniji jibqgħu jitħallew JISIRQU l-ilma tal-oplu kollu.
•
Veru tal-misthija minn hu dak li jtik donazzjoni ta' nofs miljun ta' xejn....viva l-ilma minn taht l-art li jispicca fil-flixken tal-plastik......issa x'ser jghajdu l-kompetituri l-ohra u ghaliex din id-donazzjoni ghall ECO-GHAWDEX. Mhux ahjar dawn fethu fabrika go Ghawdex biex kienu jghajnu l-ekonomija t'hemmek....fejn ser imorru dawn il-flus........nistennew u naraw. L-aqwa li ahna mahniex imgienen.
•
Rob Peter to pay back Paul a little . If anyone thinks that the Government will do anything about the Qormi boreholes they must be living in cloud cuckoo land. The fools are those who buy this water which is no better than the water you draw from your tap anyway.
•
Force all water and soft drinks bottlers to make their own reverse osmosis plants and get their water from the sea.
**
Water is a very scarce resource that we cannot allow them to rob it from us.
**
Coca Cola was taken to court in India for such and other reasons.
**
If they want to make profit then make your own water.
•
AD also said that three government officials – namely, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, MEPA chairman Austin Walker and Malta Resources Authority chairman Reuben Balzan – have held or still hold high ranking positions within Mizzi Group, the parent company of General Soft Drinks
hbieb tal hbieb you have also to include Sonny Portelli Chairman MCESD, Ex Chairman Maltacom, Ex Chairman air Malta.
Donnu Gonzi aktar komdu ma shabu ta l-Mizzi Group
