ENVIRONMENT | Protecting our natural resources
05 July 2007
Watershed Conservation Supported by Coke, World Wildlife Fund
Public-private efforts aim to ensure communities have clean water
Washington – Conservation and protection of seven of the world's most critical river systems is the aim of a multiyear partnership launched by the Coca-Cola Company, a beverage manufacturer, and the international conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Coca-Cola, also known as Coke, pledged $20 million for use "to replace every drop of water we use in our beverages and their production to achieve balance in communities and in nature," the company's chief executive officer, Neville Isdell, said at WWF's annual meeting in June. The meeting was held in Beijing, where WWF has one of its 30 national offices.
Currently, 1 billion people in the world lack access to clean drinking water, according to the U.S. Agency for International development (USAID).
Coke's commitment transforms the way the company works with WWF to address water issues from one in which the drink maker simply provided financial support for some of WWF's water conservation projects to one in which the company works with water, its supply chains and with its energy use, Suzanne Apple, WWF vice president of business and industry, told USINFO.
China's Yangtze is one of the first three river systems to be targeted in the Coke-WWF partnership. The Mekong system in southeast Asia and Rio Grande/Rio Bravo system in the United States and Mexico are the other two "top tier" systems being given priority attention, Apple told USINFO.
The other river systems the new partnership is targeting are the Danube in Europe, the coastal East Africa basin, the Mesoamerican Reef in Latin America and the rivers and streams of the southeastern United States, including the Cahaba.
Coke also has been working since 2005 with USAID through its Community Water Partnership program, which supports activities in Bolivia, Mali, Indonesia, Malawi, Egypt, Thailand, Uganda and South Africa.
In March, Coke announced that it would jointly invest with USAID $7 million in water projects in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Ivory Coast.
Both Coke and WWF are based in the United States and have operations around the world. Other U.S.-based companies investing in improving the world's freshwater resources include beverage maker Pepsi Cola and coffee company Starbucks, through its Ethos Water brand.
Coke and Pepsi have been criticized for their heavy use of water. Some of the strongest criticism has been in India, where water shortages in rural areas can be severe.
Since 2005, Coca-Cola has partnered with the Soong Chingling Foundation to implement a rainwater harvesting project in Pengyang County in western China, an area with a significant water shortage. The project builds household and community water facilities and installs water reservoirs, pump stations and water pipelines providing drinking and bathing water for 500 families in seven rural villages.
Coke also has provided new water-boiling equipment and heat-keeping containers, built new boiler rooms, drilled deepwater wells and laid water pipes for primary schools so more than 20,000 students have access to clean water. In addition, the company planted 1 million trees and drilled five deepwater wells in Hebei province's Huailai County to help protect Beijing from the onslaught of sandstorms and severe desertification.
In 2006, Coke used 290 billion liters (about 75 billion gallons) worldwide as an ingredient in its beverages and in such manufacturing processes as cleaning, heating and cooling, Isdell said.
Water is the main ingredient in Coke's products and in many communities Coke is the largest employer, said WWF's Lee Poston.
Isdell said Coke will set specific water-efficiency targets for its global operations by 2008 and return by 2010 all the water it uses in manufacturing its drinks to the environment "at a level that supports aquatic life and agriculture."
The project includes helping Coke's product suppliers adopt water conservation processes, beginning with sugar producers, Apple said. Other commodities essential to making Coke products include aluminum, glass, citrus, coffee and tea, she said.
Water users and local government officials in the affected rivers' watershed areas will be involved in project planning and local workers will be employed in the project's implementation, Apple said.
Pepsi reports that it is working with China Women's Development Foundation to research ways to expand the availability of safe drinking water in Western and Central China. It says it also is working with India's Energy and Resources Institute to create sustainable water management systems to benefit communities.
In March, Starbucks said it planned to give $1 million to water and sanitation projects to benefit people in rural and urban poor areas in India's central Madhya Pradesh state. Starbucks also said that another $1 million would be provided to improve water and sanitation services to vulnerable communities in Kenya.
"We can accomplish more working together than separately," WWF's Apple said of the importance of public-private partnerships.
