Helping to transform lives through the power of clean water

In the UK, access to potable water is rarely given a second thought but it remains a challenge for more than 800 million people around the world. Parents across developing countries face an impossible dilemma daily – do they allow their children to drink contaminated water from the local river and risk becoming poorly or deny them water and thus sentence them to death by dehydration? No parent should have to face that decision: but they do, and sadly almost 1,000 children are still dying every day from water-borne diseases - more than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. 

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting an evening in London to talk about Clean Water & Sanitisation, one of the UN’s 15 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the event, we premiered a short film entitled the “Clean Water Crisis” which goes on air tonight at 10pm on the National Geographic channel (and will be available afterwards on their ACTIVATE hub). The film charts the story around the impact of lack of access to clean water and inadequate sanitisation in a Nigerian community, highlighting the need for investment & infrastructure from Governments. Across the evening, we heard from representatives from partner organisations: National Geographic, Global Citizen and World Vision as we explored the issue at length, learning what progress has been made and what actions are still needed.  During one panel discussion we heard from Dr Phil Souter, the P&G scientist who invented an easy-to-use waster purification technology that can transforms dirty water into clean water in just 30minutes. 

Established in 2004, the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Programme, works with more than 150 partners and organisations, including World Vision and Save The Children, to provide clean drinking water access which today still remains a struggle for one in 10 people worldwide . The not-for-profit programme helps those in times of crisis – such as after an earthquake – and in daily life in remote and rural areas as a bridge before investment & infrastructure can be established. To date, the programme has provided over 15 billion litres of clean water in over 90 countries, with a goal of providing 25 billion litres by 2025.

Water is a precious resource that needs to be protected: only 2.5% of all water on Earth is fresh water and 14 out of the world’s 20 largest cities experience water scarcity.  As a Company, we recognise pressure on water resources is growing in many regions and this has the potential to impact suppliers, manufacturing sites and the communities and people we serve with our products. One of our 2030 goals set out the ambition that our sites will deliver a 35% increase in water efficiency and source at least five billion liters of water from circular sources. 

There’s a clean water crisis and it’s time to act now. Working in partnerships will enable us to better protect this critical resource– a basic human necessity – you can help by watching the ACTIVATE “Clean Water” episode with #ActForWater, we will donate a further litre of clean water to communities who need it most.