KARACHI: Leading up to World Water Day, Procter & Gamble (P&G) announces its continued collaboration with METRO Cash & Carry and Health Oriented Preventive Education (HOPE) to provide clean drinking water to Pakistani communities in need through its Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program.
P&G announced its commitment for the fourth year of its disaster-relief effort through this partnership to provide 11 million liters of clean drinking water to Pakistani communities during the year, reaching an estimated 50,000 people in need. P&G also announced its clean water cause program running at all METRO stores in Pakistan from 17th March 2018 till 30th April 2018 enabling consumers to join this cause. During this time for every purchase of an Ariel, Safeguard, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Pampers and Always product at a METRO store, P&G will donate the equivalent of 1 day of clean drinking water to the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Fund.
This partnership stems from P&G’s commitment to the provision of clean drinking water for communities in need which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal # 6 – to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. P&G, METRO and HOPE representatives came together at a press conference held at METRO Cash & Carry in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi,to raise awareness about the global clean drinking water crisis and reinforce their commitment to help save lives through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water program.
On this occasion, Astrid Teckentrup, Vice President Sales, P&G, said, “Lack of clean drinking water is a problem faced by millions of people worldwide on a daily basis. Clean water provides people the opportunity to move beyond basic survival and as a result, thrive, through improved health and therefore the ability to attend school more regularly and better economic opportunities, especially for women. We are proud to share P&G’s water purification technology to help transform the lives of people in need.Through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water program over 876 million liters of clean drinking water has been made available to Pakistani communities in need, with support from our partners since 2005.“
She further added, “We are immensely pleased to have partnered with METRO Cash & Carry for the past 3 years on our Children’s Safe Drinking Water program here in Pakistan. Through the P&G-METRO-HOPE partnership, around 45 million liters of clean drinking water have been provided via P&G Purifier of Water sachets to disaster-struck families across the country, reaching an estimated 200,000 people with clean drinking water for 4 months. This partnership has reached families affected by the drought in Tharpakar, earthquake in the northern areas such as Swat, landslides in AJK and floods in Sindh, Punjab and KPK during the monsoon season.We are delighted that METRO has joined us once again, and encourage consumers to join is in this mission as well by participating in the P&G clean water cause program currently running at METRO stores.”
Sharing his thoughts, Mr. Marek Minkiewicz, Managing Director METRO Cash & Carry Pakistan, said: “METRO is proud to be associated with P&G and its Children’s Safe Drinking Water program. METRO Cash & Carry employees in several countries are actively involved in activities to promote social and ecological projects under our global Corporate Citizen program Care & Share which was launched back in 2008. In Pakistan, under the umbrella of Care & Share, our purpose is to improve people’s lives, create awareness about global clean water crisis and motivate people to help provide those in need with clean drinking water. To support this year’s UN World Water Day, METRO is also running its own global “METRO Water Initiative” campaign to bring together all our water commitments and those of our suppliers just like P&G.It is our goal to use METRO’s direct reach to 21 million international customers, which translates to 1 billion end consumers, to increase awareness of the topic, and actively tackle the issue of water scarcity. Last year alone we collected more than 720,000 days’ worth of clean drinking water with the Children’s Safe Drinking Water program. We are proud to be partnering with P&G in this project as a part of our Care & Share program where we can help bring clean drinking water to children and families in the developing world.”
Dr. Mubina Agboatwalla, Chairperson HOPE, said: “Water is a basic human right. It is unfortunate that a significantly overwhelming number of people all over Pakistan do not have access to clean drinking water. We have partnered with P&G, through its Children’s Safe Drinking Water program, to make clean drinking water available to communities across the country in times of natural disasters and through social markets. The P&G-METRO collaboration for disaster-relief over the past 3 years has been a much-needed intervention which has made a positive impact in the lives of disaster-struck communities. HOPE remains committed to continue to facilitate P&G and METRO in its endeavor to help disaster-affected communities in Pakistan.
In celebration of World Water Day on March 22, P&G will also release a powerful documentary in partnership with National Geographic to highlight the clean drinking water crisis and share the unique perspectives of three women from around the world who have benefitted from the CSDW program.
P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water is one way the Company demonstrates it is committed to impacting communities around the world and working to be a force for good and a force for growth. Through the help of its more than 150 partners around the world, P&G has provided more than 13 billion liters of clean water since the program began in 2004 and is committed to delivering 15 billion liters of clean drinking water globally by 2020. Using P&G’s expertise in cleaning innovation and consumer research, P&G scientists packed the power of a water treatment plant into a simple four-gram packet. The technology is easy to use; with only a bucket, a spoon, a cloth and a small P&G packet, families can purify 10 liters of potentially deadly water in only 30 minutes. This is enough drinking water for a family of five for one day. BIZ TODAY REPORT
