Pepsi and Coke contributing to water shortage

Your green printer is on the soap-box about water again.

Sorry folks, but the more we read and hear about the drought here in North Carolina, the more interesting things get. The Independent Weekly reports that mega-corporations Pepsi and Coca Cola have maneuvered themselves into a favorable position to take advantage of our water crisis.

The deal is this: Pepsi and Coke are the two largest bottlers of water in the market. Pepsi Bottling Ventures bottles Aquafina here in Raleigh, NC drawing from municipal sources. Coke draws water for its Dasani brand from Charlotte, NC reservoirs. The state has signed a contract not to compete with retailers if the cities run out of water. This means that if the reservoirs run dry, no state agency will step in to help its citizens until all of the bottled water has been sold off retailer’s shelves.

Interesting conflict of priorities… Despite the extreme shortage, neither Pepsi nor Coke has been asked to pay more for the water it draws from the municipal water supplies, nor have they been asked to reduce their consumption. If we run out of water, our only choice will be to purchase water bottled by them. The faster they bottle water, the sooner we’ll run out, and at 3000 percent markup (the bottlers margin over the cost they pay the municipalities) the windfall profit they stand to make is substantial.

Might not the bottlers be motivated to increase production in order to stockpile inventory and take advantage of the sweet deal the state made with them? Seems the mega-corporations are having their water and drinking it too.