In anticipation of World Water Day today, it’s been very busy around the halls of PepsiCo. In case you’re not up to date on the world’s latest water stats, here are the two big ones to wrap your brain around: nearly one billion people are currently without access to clean drinking water, according to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report. Another approximately 2.6 billion people don’t have access to decent sanitation services or sanitary facilities. In Latin America and the Caribbean the need for universal access to water and sanitation is particularly great – these two regions are often overshadowed by water scarcity issues in other parts of the globe, like Africa. As Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced significant population growth over the past two decades, the growth has outpaced service and infrastructure delivery, leaving hundreds of thousands of households completely off the grid. The impact of this is that productivity is stifled, education and mobility are inhibited – being disconnected from the grid in reality is a lead weight around the neck of poverty alleviation.
You may be wondering ‘and what does the Foundation have to do with water?’ Just this: access to safe water is essential for PepsiCo to operate just as it is essential for every family and every community. Water is life and it is one of the most fundamental ingredients for a healthy society and a healthy economy. At PepsiCo, we’re keenly aware of our responsibility to protect and conserve this valuable resource. Around here, we’re always working on water; our commitments to water-related issues go far beyond our own operations. Last year, PepsiCo unveiled global water goals organized around the premise of respecting the human right to water by preserving water resources and enabling access to safe water through world-class efficiency in its operations.
The Foundation partners with implementing organizations to bring to life our commitment to provide three million people access to safe water. Today, I am honored to welcome another partner to our strategic portfolio and share that the PepsiCo Foundation has pledged $5 million to the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) AquaFund, to fund water and sanitation projects across Latin America. Together, we’ll be bringing safe water and improved sanitation to 500,000 people across the region by the end of 2015. All of us at PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation are proud to be the first private sector organization to contribute to the AquaFund. This investment is part of the landmark public-private partnership between PepsiCo and the IDB announced in February 2011.
Our participation in the AquaFund will launch a variety of incredible projects, including a first time Latin American pilot of the innovative WaterCredit program. Working collaboratively with IDB and Water.org, a U.S.-based nonprofit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation, PepsiCo will support a “lift and shift” of this marketplace water and sanitation microloan model. IDB shares our enthusiasm for WaterCredit, having seen the power of this model to affordably bring household water connections and toilets at scale. In 2008, the PepsiCo Foundation made a $4.1 million grant to Water.org. To date, more than 165,000 people in India have received household water connections and more than 50,000 household sanitation improvements have been installed so far. More importantly we see solid signs that a sustainable marketplace for dedicated water and sanitation microloans is taking hold in India and we have high hopes that the same is possible across Latin America!
In traveling to these regions many times, I’ve seen first-hand the impact that projects, like those that will be supported by the AquaFund, can accomplish. And so, it’s with pride and anticipation that I look forward to seeing the impact that our funding has on the lives of so many people throughout Latin America.
