Procter and Gamble company donates water purifiers

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta yesterday received 630,000 sachets of water purifiers from Procter and Gamble (P&G).

The purifiers can clean up to 6.3 million litres of contaminated water. At State House Nairobi, a P&G team demonstrated to the First Lady how the product purifies a bucket of contaminated water in five minutes.

P&G made the donation under the Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) programme as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The Company’s Commercial Director, Anthony Ng’ang’a, said the technology was already making a difference in some parts of the country including Laikipia West where there are inadequate sources of safe drinking water.

The donation comes at a time when many parts of the country are experiencing acute water shortage, forcing thousands of people, especially those in arid and semi-arid areas, to drink unsafe water.

It also comes when the ongoing national strike by doctors has put a strain on the availability of health services especially for vulnerable communities who are adversely affected by water-borne diseases. The new technology will lessen the burden.

The water purifiers will be distributed through the Beyond Zero programme whose team will identify the most vulnerable areas in terms of clean water insufficiency. Beyond Zero was represented at the ceremony by its technical adviser Jane Kiragu and programme officer Angela Lagat.

The CSDW programme has been running in Kenya since 2004 and P&G has already made a Sh500 million investment in the country where it has already purified one billion litres of water.

Although P&G operates in over 75 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, Kenya is the second largest beneficiary of the programme. The company executes CSDW in 22 counties in Kenya, including Machakos, Kajiado, Taita Taveta, Narok, Kisumu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Garissa and Kitui.