P&G to bring clean drinking water to Zimbabwe

CINCINNATI Procter & Gamble and global health organization Population Services International have announced that they will provide 10 million liters of drinking water to help prevent cholera in Zimbabwe. More than 1,000 people have died from the current cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe.

Developed by P&G, PUR Purifier of Water is a powdered water clarification and disinfectant technology that comes in small packets. Using some of the same ingredients as municipal water systems, the PUR water purification packets remove pollutants and cysts, as well as kill viruses and bacteria, including the bacteria that cause cholera, P&G stated.

The packets will be distributed for free to those living in areas with high cholera outbreaks in and around Harare, Beitbridge and Mudzi, Zimbabwe.

Approximately 10,000 families with 40,000 to 60,000 people will be reached with the free distribution of the PUR packets to meet their water treatment needs for three months.

"P&G is grateful for the work of our safe drinking water partners, PSI and AmeriCares, during this holiday season to make PUR available to the people of Zimbabwe and to help address this deadly cholera outbreak," stated Greg Allgood, director of Children's Safe Drinking Water at P&G. "PSI will provide the equivalent of 300 tanker trucks of purified water treated with the PUR packets in order to help prevent thousands of cases of cholera."

The Children's Safe Drinking Water program is a signature program of P&G's Live, Learn and Thrive global cause, which reached more than 60 million children in need around the world last year. P&G launched CSDW in 2003 and since then has worked with partners to provide more than 1.3 billion liters of clean drinking water to people in more than 40 countries.