NEW DELHI: Coca-Cola India has stopped production at three plants ahead of the peak summer season, citing inadequate demand, including one in Jaipur where activists have alleged water depletion The other plants that were shut are in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya. Activist body India Resource Center (IRC) had said Wednesday that one of the primary reasons for the closure of the Kaladera plant in Jaipur was the increased difficulty in accessing groundwater from a depleted aquifer, in addition to incurring financial losses.The spokesman of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), Coca-Cola’s bottling company, said production at the Kaladera plant had been halted because of lack of demand in the region and not due to charges of water depletion. The plant has “currently suspended manufacturing,” the spokesperson said.“We are continuing with all other operations at Kaladera. We also retain the licence to produce at this plant, which is testimony to the fact that should there be a change in demand and volume, we may utilise this latent capacity.”Kaladera is the fourth Coca-Cola plant to face activist backlash over environmental issues. The company’s plant at Plachimada in Kerala downed shutters in 2005 following an agitation there and two plants in Uttar Pradesh are facing local resistance over charges of groundwater depletion.All four plants are operated by HCCB, the US soda maker’s wholly owned subsidiary. In India, Coca-Cola’s plants are split between companyowned and franchisee bottlers, with both operating 24 plants each. The Kaladera plant is a small one that supplied mainly to Rajasthan.The Meghalaya unit is a small one, while the Andhra Pradesh facility is mid-sized. “We are going through a process of consolidation where new state-of-the art facilities are being built and existing production capacities are being optimised,” HCCB said in a statement. “These decisions are taken in keeping with plant capacity utilisation considerations, based on market demands and projections.A plant’s capacity also becomes viable or unviable depending on the availability of raw materials.” On a report by The Energy and Resources Institute some years ago that the Kaladera plant would contribute to a worsening water situation, the HCCB spokesperson said: “The TERI report being referred to was instituted by The Coca-Cola Company.The report clearly establishes that the Kaladera plant in Rajasthan is a “minuscule user” of water from the local aquifer, tapping much less than a percent of the area’s available water. But nonetheless, we have been working towards being a net positive contributor to the availability of water in the aquifer.”Activist group IRC said it has proof that a Coca-Cola representative told workers that production at Kaladera was shut down on January 25, 2016, and there is no possibility of resuming in the future, the plant has incurred financial losses, the availability of groundwater and raw materials has become difficult and that the plant will now serve as a storage and distribution centre. It said the plant was built in 2000.“The (permanent) workers of the plant have told us of verbally being informed of the permanent closure and being offered voluntary retirement schemes and transfers to other plants as a result of the closure,” IRC said in a statement.In December, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had issued a notice to the company seeking an explanation of its plant’s drainage and waste “polluting” the environment in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.