In light of water crises around the world that hit Third World communities the hardest, corporations are working together to remind Canadian shoppers not to take water for granted.
This past April, P&G teamed up with Walmart Canada to launch its Clean Water Initiative. For every P&G product purchased at the store from April 1 to April 30, P&G donated two cents, which P&G considers the equivalent of one day of clean water, to their own Children’s Safe Drinking Water Fund. Ten cents is enough to provide a pack of water purifier, which cleans 10 litres of water.
The company’s goal is to donate 25 million days of clean water per year to Third World communities, roughly US$500,000.
“More than 1,600 children die every single day from water-borne illnesses,” said Jason Priestly, Canadian actor and clean water advocate who is supporting the initiative. “As a dad, the thought of children dying from preventable diseases caused by lack of clean water is an unfathomable tragedy.”
Twenty-five million days of clean water may have been a conservative estimate if P&G plans to continue the campaign for a full year. In just the first month, P&G claims to have donated more than 8.6 million days of clean water, more than one-third of their donation goal.
“Canadians are extremely generous and we are grateful for their support in the effort to provide clean water for all,” said Lee Tappenden, Walmart Canada’s chief merchandising officer.
The campaign continues until March 31, 2015.
– Katie Yantzi
A good initiative on a worthy cause. There are other companies including Canadian companies that are also funding clean water around the world, including Enviro Stewards in Elmira that funds Biosand filters in Sudan , and Grosche a Canadian company in Ontario http://www.grosche.ca Grosche funds 10 liters of safe water (5 days basic need) for every product that they sell. They have a “safe water project” by which they are installing BioSand filters in remote areas in Sudan and India.
Nice to see the big companies doing this work more and more on safe water.
Excellent comment, Brad! This may lend itself to a possible feature article in an upcoming issue.
A good initiative on a worthy cause. There are other companies including Canadian companies that are also funding clean water around the world, including Enviro Stewards in Elmira that funds Biosand filters in Sudan , and Grosche a Canadian company in Ontario http://www.grosche.ca Grosche funds 10 liters of safe water (5 days basic need) for every product that they sell. They have a “safe water project” by which they are installing BioSand filters in remote areas in Sudan and India.
Nice to see the big companies doing this work more and more on safe water.
Excellent comment, Brad! This may lend itself to a possible feature article in an upcoming issue.