U.S. Water News Online
CINCINNATI -- UNICEF has welcomed an alliance with Procter & Gamble that could provide safe drinking water for millions of families and schoolchildren. The focus of the alliance will be providing home-based water purification, to ease the burden on millions of families who currently struggle to access safe water.
UNICEF and P & G will initially be working together in eight countries -- Haiti, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Uganda, Kenya and Pakistan. Joint projects will focus on three main areas: supporting UNICEF's drive to bring safe water to schools, helping families in emergency situations, and reducing household exposure to arsenic-contaminated water.
One of the innovative tools the partnership will provide is PUR® Purifier of Water -- a simple, cost-effective home-based water purification system. PUR removes dirt and disease-causing pathogens from drinking water within minutes, making it ideal for use by families in developing countries. P & G provides PUR at cost for humanitarian uses through the organization's philanthropy program: Children's Safe Drinking Water.
Unsafe drinking water exacts a heavy toll on children worldwide; 1.6 million children under five die every year from simple diarrhea, a water-borne affliction. Home-based water purification systems have been shown to drastically cut diarrhea deaths.
"Millions of lives can be saved or transformed with simple, inexpensive and proven tools like household water purification," says UNICEF's Chief of Water, Environment and Sanitation, Vanessa Tobin. "And our experience using PUR sachets in the wake of the tsunami suggests it could be a particularly valuable relief tool during emergencies."
UNICEF will work together with P & G and other local partners to bring safe drinking water within easy reach of the families that need it. The partnership will also help families learn the simple steps to use water purification systems at home.
"This is a great example of how combining resources of the public and private sectors can bring innovative new technologies to more children than ever," said Greg Allgood, Director of P & G's Children's Safe Drinking Water program.
The PUR Purifier of Water technology was developed in cooperation with the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has been shown to reduce significantly diarrhoeal illness in the developing world.
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