Posted on October 3, 2011

Procter & Gamble Commits $3 Million to Provide Clean Drinking Water in Horn of Africa

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble has announced a $3 million commitment to provide clean drinking water to more than two million people in the Horn of Africa through its Children's Safe Drinking Water Program.

Announced at the seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the global consumer goods giant aims to prevent more than ten million days of illness in the region, which, according to the United Nations, currently faces the most urgent humanitarian crisis on the planet. In partnership with PSI (Population Services International), Save the Children, CARE, AmeriCares, Action Against Hunger, GlobalMedic, and others, P&G will provide thirty-one million of its water purification packets to people in the region, resulting in more than 300 million liters of clean drinking water.

The announcement coincided with other commitments to provide developing countries with access to safe drinking, water, sanitation, and hygiene made at the annual CGI meeting. They included a commitment by World Vision to assist 2.2 million drought-affected children and their families in the Horn of Africa and a pledge by the International Medical Corps to help more than eleven million people in East Africa by providing integrated health, water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions. Through P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water program, Target also committed to provide one million days of safe drinking water, while the U.S. Agency for International Development pledged to provide clean water to one million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

"At the Clinton Global Initiative, we have a wide variety of members from business, government, and the nonprofit world who are working together to address this critical issue," said former President Bill Clinton. "P&G is doing more than almost any other corporation to save kids' lives by providing clean drinking water."