Coca-Cola to Give $30 Million for Clean Water Projects in Africa

by Climate Weekly – March 17, 2009

In an effort to provide 2 million or more Africans with clean water and sanitation by 2015, the Coca-Cola Company is committing $30 million to clean water projects across Africa. The Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), which the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation launched, will work with local communities in African nations to achieve its goals.

RAIN already has water projects running in 19 African countries–Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zambia, with clean water now reaching an estimated 300,000 people.

The project has three main goals:

• to improve water efficiency by 20 percent by 2012, compared to a baseline year 2004;
• return all water the company uses for manufacturing processes to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life and agriculture by the end of 2010; and
• expand its support of healthy watersheds and sustainable community water programs to balance the water used in its finished beverages.

"Africa's water crisis threatens the health of its population and, therefore, its prospects for economic growth," said Muhtar Kent, The Coca-Cola Company's president and CEO. "Communities need strong, healthy people to thrive, and our business needs strong, healthy communities to grow and be sustainable. Helping African communities tackle their water challenges is an important priority for our Company and our bottling partners and is an area where we can make a positive and lasting impact," he added.