第43. 至46. 題為題組
It might be hard for us to imagine having Coca-Cola as the only drink instead of fresh water. Yet,
it has been the case in San Cristóbal for the past few decades.
Located in southeastern Mexico, San Cristóbal, once a rainy place, can only enjoy potable water
every other day. Water does trickle down from public pipes, but it's all but undrinkable, with too much
chlorine. The locals find water purifiers unaffordable or even unimaginable. Hence, they end up drinking
Coca-Cola, which is produced locally and far more readily available than tap water. With residents
there drinking on average more than two liters of Coca-Cola on a daily basis, the real price to pay for
such an alternative to plain water, however, is the sacrifice of people's physical health. Diabetes has
been one of the leading causes of death, second only to heart disease, though the latter also has a lot to
do with one's sugar consumption. Struggling with obesity and the many chronic diseases is now defining
many local people's adolescence and adulthood. Annually, more than 3,000 lives of San Cristóbal are
claimed due to their unhealthy drinking habit.
The culprit, as most locals believe, is the bottling plant for Coke, a Mexico-based multinational
food company owned by Femsa. The plant, with its contribution to the government's tax revenue, has
long been granted daily access to more than 300,000 gallons of water in San Cristóbal to churn out the
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