In Kiboga, Uganda, Nambube treats dirty water with P&G’s water purifier as her grandchildren look on.
One of the major problems facing families in poverty is a lack of clean water. Nearly 1 billion people face this challenge daily. Mothers and children walk miles in some communities to get water for drinking and cooking, but it often makes them ill with diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and typhoid, which claim more children’s lives than AIDS and malaria combined.
To address this massive challenge, the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water program was started in 2004, working with a global network of nongovernmental organizations (including ChildFund) to provide families and communities with water purification packets that make dirty water clean both quickly and easily.
In May, Procter & Gamble celebrates a milestone: the delivery of its 10 billionth liter of clean drinking water. A family in Mexico is receiving the 10 billionth liter on May 3, an event that will be followed by a series of celebrations involving CSDW and its partners worldwide.
Water purification packets, which are delivered to households, schools, early childhood development centers and health care clinics, make a major difference for communities. Even if families are gathering water that is obviously dirty, using a packet makes the water clean and healthy in a matter of minutes.
In Uganda, one of 11 countries where ChildFund works with CSDW, children younger than 5 are able to purify water. A primary school’s headmaster says that children are healthier than ever, and incidences of typhoid have drastically reduced since 2010, when the school began using the purifier. Attendance also has improved from 290 students to 420.
“Drinking water from this kind of water sources, which is very unclean, has brought a lot of diarrhea among these children,” says Michael Mukholi, a program officer for ChildFund Uganda in an area that uses the packets to purify water collected from muddy lakes and ponds. “People look at this kind of approach as a miracle. A solution has been found to ensure that children are able to access clean and safe water.”
The water purifier is also crucial in emergencies. In western Ecuador, which was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in April, infrastructural damage has cut off its water supply in many communities. In response, ChildFund and P&G are working with the local government to distribute water purification supplies to provide more than 2 million liters of water to the worst-affected region.
In Honduras, we are partnering with P&G and Walmart to provide more than 3.4 million liters of clean water to 10 communities that have poor access to safe water, reaching 6,500 people. Many have suffered from diarrhea, skin diseases and hepatitis, all related to unclean water. At Walmart stores in Honduras, when customers buy P&G brand products through June 29, Procter & Gamble will donate the equivalent of one day of clean water.
In total, ChildFund has been able to provide 300 million liters of clean water globally through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water program since 2009. Our focus is providing water to children younger than 5, families in areas affected by disasters and people living with HIV and AIDS.
“ChildFund is pleased to partner with P&G in bringing clean drinking water to people in developing countries,” says ChildFund President & CEO Anne Goddard. “We congratulate them for meeting the milestone of 10 billion liters of clean water, fulfilling one of life’s most important needs. We look forward to continuing our work with P&G in making clean water available to even more people in the future, particularly children, who need it to survive and thrive.”
