New Delhi: Global beverages player Coca Cola plans to replenish all the groundwater used by the company in India back into nature and become completely ‘water neutral´ by 2012.

“Our target is to neutralise all ground water usage by the company in India by the end of the current calender year and become water neutral for all products and processes by 2012,” said Coca Cola India director (Quality and Environment) Navneet Mehta at a CII summit here.

Water neutrality is a term used to describe the ratio of ground water usage by any user vis-a-vis the quantity put back into nature.

Mehta said the company has achieved a replenishment level of 82% on its annual ground water usage in India so far.

“Our ground water usage ratio has improved by up to 42% between 1998 and 2008. We have a policy of annually revising water use plans in all our 56 facilities in India,” Mehta said.

The company is also planning to commission a study of five watershed projects this year. “We will study the results and our plan is to have such watershed projects in all our 56 plants within next five years,” he added.