P&G partners Plan International on safe water

In the past 13 years, through CSDW, P&G has provided 13 billion litres of clean drinking water to families in more than 90 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. The partnership with Plan International will enable P&G to expand the programme to Northeast Nigeria, where many people currently lack access to safe drinking water.

Speaking on the partnership, Temitope Iluyemi, Director, Africa Global Government Relations and Public Policy, P&G said: “Nearly 1 billion people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water and diarrhoea resulting from drinking contaminated water is a leading cause of illness and even death for children and infants in developing countries. Simply providing clean, drinkable water can reduce the risk of disease and death by about 50 percent.

At P&G, we have leveraged years of scientific research and development to create the P&G Purifier of Water. One tiny packet cleans 10 litres of dirty water, making water drinkable for millions of families in underserved communities around the world.” “With the support of Plan International, we are providing the P&G Purifier of Water for free to communities in need in Borno state.

It is our desire that after this, the inhabitants of Mafa Local Government Area will witness a reduction in illnesses related to drinking contaminated water, as well as reducing infant and child mortality and children’s absence from schools”. Hussaini Abdu, Country Director, Plan International Nigeria said the partnership with P&G is in response to the urgent need to provide support to people who lack clean drinking water in the north-eastern part of the country.

“In Borno state, an estimated 28% of internally displaced people (IDP), 34% of people living in host communities and 32% of people who have returned to their communities do not have sufficient access to clean water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

‘As of April 2018, there were 638 reported cases of cholera in the state, including three deaths due to unsafe water consumption. Over the course of five months, with P&G’s partnership, we intend to directly reach 15,000 households, consisting of approximately 90,000 beneficiaries, including 23,000 children under the age of five.”

The P&G Purifier of Water was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and purifies even heavily contaminated drinking water so that it meets World Health Organization standards for safe drinking water. Each packet provides enough water for a family of five for a day.

The CSDW programme, which distributes this product in partnership with humanitarian organizations around the world, has since been carried out in over 90 developing countries.  By expanding CSDW’s reach, P&G is committed to fighting the world water crisis, in partnership with NGOs, governments, companies and consumers. The company aims to deliver 15 billion litres of clean water by 2020.

Plan has been operating in Nigeria since 2014 and is currently responding to the humanitarian crisis in the sectors of child protection in emergencies, sexual and gender-based violence, food security, education in emergencies, and nutrition, including providing access to clean drinking water, in Borno and Adamawa states.