P&G clean water commitment hits milestone

American FMCG giant Procter and Gamble (P&G) has delivered its 6 billionth litre of clean drinking water as part of its Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitment to save one life every hour by the year 2020.

The commitment, made in 2010 at the CGI Annual Meeting, entails providing 2bn litres of clean drinking water every year. To date, clean drinking water provided by P&G has saved an estimated 32,000 lives and prevented 250m days of diarrheal illnesses across 71 countries, says the company.

The 6 billionth litre was delivered in Myanmar, through a partnership with World Vision, by Dr. Greg Allgood, founder and director of P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Programme, and Chelsea Clinton, board member of the Clinton Foundation.

To mark the milestone and underline its commitment to Myanmar, P&G also announced a multi-year multi-programme alliance with USAID, which will focus on improving maternal and child health in the country and will include a provision of at least an additional 200m litres of clean drinking water in Myanmar alone, over the next two years.

• P&G has been providing clean drinking water in developing countries for nearly a decade through its award-winning P&G Purifier of Water technology. Each sachet of P&G Purifier of Water contains 4 grams of powder that can clean up to 10 litres of water. It removes more than 99.99999% of common waterborne bacteria (including those that cause cholera), 99.99% of common waterborne viruses (including those that cause Hepatitis A), and 99.9% of protozoa from contaminated water, helping to reduce diarrheal disease incidence in the developing world by up to 90%.