P&G and Asda aim to provide 75 million days of clean drinking water in joint clean water programme
Former Spice Girl and mum, Melanie C, is making an appeal to shoppers across the UK to support the P&G and Asda Clean Water Campaign, which hopes to provide 75 million days of clean drinking water to some of the world’s poorest communities by the end of 2014.
Thanks to UK shoppers, the P&G and Asda Clean Water Campaign, which launched in April 2013, has already helped provide more than 30 million days of clean drinking water to children and their families in the developing world. Now, Melanie C is urging everyone to get involved and help take these efforts to the next level, just by doing their weekly shop. For every purchase of a P&G product including brands like Ariel, Gillette and Pampers, one day of clean drinking water will be donated.
Drinking contaminated water is still a leading cause of illness and death among infants and children in the developing world and every day, 2,000 children die as a result; more deaths than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.
Since 1995, P&G has been working to combat the clean drinking water crisis around the world, using its water purification technology and through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme (CSDW), has partnered with more than 100 NGOs, charities, and governments to raise awareness and deliver almost 7 billion litres of clean water to those in need.
Melanie C, P&G and Asda Clean Water Campaign ambassador say, “As a mum myself, I understand that every mother’s dream is for her children to be healthy. Being able to provide our children with clean water is something that we simply take for granted, but unfortunately, it is still a problem for more than a billion people around the world. It is amazing to see how the efforts of Asda shoppers in the UK are helping make this dream a reality for parents in communities across the globe.”
As part of her dedication to the programme, Melanie recently visited Ghana with CSDW implementing partner, World Vision, to witness the difference clean water can make. She adds: “My trip to Ghana was a humbling experience and one that I will never forget. Having seen first-hand the vital difference, clean water makes to the lives of children, women and the wider community, I hope that people will get behind the campaign and help us make a difference.”
Vice President and Managing Director for P&G UK & Ireland, Irwin Lee said, “We are committed to giving back both in our local communities and around the world where we can make a difference. The P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme is one of the strongest demonstrations of how we are helping those in need and is a source of great pride throughout our organisation. Our goal to save one life every hour by providing more than 2 billion litres of clean drinking water every year by 2020 is ambitious. We know we can’t do it alone, which is why partnerships like the P&G and Asda Clean Water Campaign are so critical.”
“The year one goal of this partnership was to provide 25 million days of clean water and, thanks to all our partners at Asda and the thousands of shoppers who got involved, this was met in just seven months. We hope that together, this year, we can continue to build on this great work and provide a total of 75 million days of clean water by the end of 2014.”
Philip Briggs, Commercial Director, Non-Edible at Asda added, “We’d like to thank all of our Asda customers who have got behind this campaign so far. They’re the ones who’ve helped to make a difference to people’s lives by helping us provide more than 30 million days of clean drinking water to date.”
From 27th February to 19th March 2014 in Asda stores nationwide and on Asda.com, for every P&G product which was purchased, P&G donated one day’s clean drinking water to the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme, meaning shoppers across the country can make a meaningful difference to someone’s life – just by doing their weekly shop.
After the 19th March 2014, a wide selection of P&G products including brands like Gillette, Pantene, Head & Shoulders and Lenor, which bear the 1 pack = 1 day’s clean drinking water logo will continue to trigger donations to the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme.