(Bogotá) Colombian authorities announced Monday the opening of an administrative investigation against a Coca-Cola bottling company that allegedly captured water from a municipality near Bogotá during a period of drought and rationing.
The American beverage giant was recently cited in a press investigation, according to which the Manantial brand (owned by Coca-Cola) would be taking thousands of liters of water “without restriction” from La Calera, a town near Bogotá, in the mountains overlooking the capital.
Millions of residents of Bogotá and its surroundings have been experiencing periodic water cuts since April due to low water reserves and lack of rainfall.
The Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR), a regional environmental authority, announced Monday that it would verify the press reports.
“The regulation clearly states that the priority use should be human consumption and not industrial activities,” CAR director Alfred Ballesteros said on local radio.
On August 11, the Voragine news portal reported that Manantial, one of seven Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia, was extracting more than 279,000 liters of water per day from a river in La Calera, in the midst of a drought emergency.
The American multinational has not publicly commented on this article, which notably cited local farmers affected by the drought.
CAR to conduct ‘hydrological study’ ‘to understand water supply’ […] demand and, on that basis, determine whether there is enough water, first for the communities and then for other uses,” added its director.
“As an environmental authority, our priority is that people have access to clean water and we cannot prioritise private use over community use,” he said.
Manantial has had a license to extract 3.23 liters of water per second in La Calera since 1981.