Coca-Cola Pakistan has brought a positive change in the lives of thousands of people by providing access to clean drinking water and better sanitation services through various projects in the country, stated a press release issued by the company on World Water Day. The company's flagship project 'Watershed Management' in Galiat, in partnership with WWF Pakistan, has positively impacted the lives of more than 28,000 people around the area.
The project which started seven years ago, also entails plantation of over 14,000 trees, four women vocational centres, construction of check-dams and rehabilitation of 20 springs. Furthermore, the Company recently partnered with reputed NGO, Mountain & Glacier Protection Organisation (MGPO) for integrated water resource management, providing safe drinking water and sanitation services in Baltistan.
Rizwan U Khan, General Manager, Coca-Cola Pakistan and Afghanistan region, said on World Water Day, "Water is a key resource which must be protected. We at Coca-Cola are making all efforts to not only bring water usage efficiency in our operations, but also help protect and rehabilitate the watershed of key areas across the country". In the past five years, over 566 million litres water has been replenished through the Galiat project. The Coca-Cola Company also set an inspirational goal of being water neutral by 2020, which it remains well on track to achieve before time. Another key project with UNHABITAT focuses around clean drinking water and improved sanitation facilities in over 100 schools of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
This project is now impacting over 20,000 children of these schools, where a high number of females are now able to attend school due to provision of separate washrooms. Globally, The Coca-Cola system returned approximately 126.7 billion litres of water used in its manufacturing processes back to communities and nature through treated wastewater in 2014-15. These combined efforts put Coca-Cola on track to be the first global food and beverage company to replenish all the water it uses back to communities and nature.-PR