PepsiCo Foundation Commits $4.2 Million to WaterAid to Increase Access to Clean Water in India

on
18 June 2018
In
Employees and companies, India, Corporate engagement, Water
Binan Devi, 30, collects clean water from the new handpump in Kauthiya Kewal Panchayat in the forest of Baradah, Bihar, India.
Image: WaterAid/Poulomi Basu

The PepsiCo Foundation announced today a $4.2 million grant to WaterAid, a leading international water and sanitation non-governmental organization, to provide clean water access1 to communities in southern India facing extreme water shortages, specifically in Palakkad (Kerala), Nelamangala (Karnakata), and Sri City (Andhra Pradesh).

Water scarcity and the sustainable management of water resources is a critical challenge that India is grappling with. This grant from the PepsiCo Foundation seeks to implement solutions that will help increase access to clean water for more than 200,000 people; build community and government capacity to manage water resources; and educate community members to adopt sustainable sanitation and hygiene practices.               

At PepsiCo, we believe water is a fundamental human right and that access to safe water is one of the most urgent global challenges. Over the last decade, we have been focused on grassroots solutions to this challenge as well as partnering with experts in communities around the world to support innovative, sustainable and local water solutions. Access to safe water is at the heart of PepsiCo’s global water strategy, in which we aim to enable long-term, sustainable water security for our business and others who depend on water availability.
Roberta Barbieri, PepsiCo Vice President, Global Sustainability

As a result of current water use habits, population growth and the effects of climate change, a staggering four billion people are affected by water scarcity2 and by 2050, global demand for water will increase by as much as 50 percent3. Two-thirds of the world’s population currently lives in areas that experience water scarcity for at least one month a year and about half of those affected live in China and India4.

Thumbnail
Strong public-private partnerships drive scalable and lasting impact, and we are proud to work with PepsiCo to bring clean water to hundreds of thousands of people in need. To improve access to clean water, it’s essential that corporations step up and invest in collaborative action, just as PepsiCo is doing as part of its leading Performance with Purpose agenda.
Sarina Prabasi, U.S. CEO of WaterAid

About PepsiCo Foundation

Established in 1962, the PepsiCo Foundation works with non-profit partners to develop innovative, sustainable solutions that address challenges in underserved communities around the world. The Foundation, along with PepsiCo and its employees, seeks to catalyze efforts that advance our Performance with Purpose 2025 goals related to increasing access to nutritious servings, providing access to safe water, partnering to increase recycling rates, and enabling young women to progress through school and be successful in the workforce. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com/Purpose/Global-Citizenship.

WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international nonprofit organization works in 34 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 25.8 million people with clean water and 25.1 million people with decent toilets. For more information, please visit www.wateraid.org/us.

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

1 For PepsiCo, access to safe water is achieved at the watershed, community and household levels by making water more readily available, better managing supply or volume of water and/or ensuring quality through water treatment, improved hygiene and community sanitation.

2 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/2/e1500323 Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2016

3 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28096/9781464811791.pdf

4 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002475/247553e.pdf  Wastewater, The Untapped Report, 2017UNESCO

Related press