Making Every Drop of Water Count
Water Scarcity and availability of clean drinking water is one of the biggest crises. Growing use of fresh water and depletion of usable freshwater resources are contributing to water scarcity much more than ever. Every small effort to save water is the crying need of the day.
In line with this priority, Colgate announced ‘Water’ as a key pillar of its sustainability initiatives under which water stewardship and commitment to partnering with local and global organizations to bring clean water to underserved communities are the focus areas.
Further, at Colgate India, we have a long-standing commitment to reduce water intensity and there is a robust program across our manufacturing plants that help not only in recycling, reusing, and zero discharge of water, but also in conservation.
Colgate India through its parent company, partnered with the NGO, 'Water for People’, that has a comprehensive water management approach, in regions that have high water stress. Since 2012, the company has been supporting ‘ Shehora District’ in Bihar and ‘24 Parganas’ in West Bengal, as these areas were adversely affected, either due to lack of water or a degraded quality of water. Availability of clean drinking water and its accessibility, household community hygiene, community water pumps, sanitation facilities in schools were the key focus areas of this program. Over 3.9 lakh people benefitted through community water system, around 1.20 lakh through sanitation and more than 4.4 lakh children benefitted through schools’ WASH (Water And Sanitation Hygiene) Services.
To strengthen the commitment and focus on conservation of water, Colgate India in partnership with the NGO, Water for People - India Trust, launched a new initiative in Maharashtra, one of the areas highly in need of water. The main focus of the program will be to support communities with quality drinking water, improve accessibility to water and make water available for sanitation through rain water harvesting system. In addition, emphasis will be on creating awareness and educating the community as well as sensitizing the children in the schools through various mechanisms to ‘Save Water’. Water for People - India Trust will work with local communities and governance to implement the program. The work has started with a feasibility study to identify locations at the Block and Panchayat levels.
Colgate celebrated India’s Water Heroes on World Water Day
Colgate celebrated World Water Day on March 22, 2017 by honoring India’s Water Heroes who work hard to save millions of litres of water each day. The company paid tribute to:
- Kartavya Health Foundation's Navin Chandra, who helps by saving millions of litres of water every day, through rainwater harvesting
- Drop Dead Foundation's Aabid Surti, who works towards repairing leaking taps in Mumbai suburbs.
The Water Program at Amravati in Maharashtra
The Amravati Water Program, launched in 2017 is a collaboration of Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited, and the non-profit organization, Water For People India Trust, to provide availability and accessibility of water, awareness towards hygiene and sanitation (WASH program), and other initiatives, such as water conservation and rainwater harvesting. Reaching out to 36 villages, the initiative aims to set up 20 mini water supply schemes, water for sanitation in 36 schools 6 ashram shalas. The Water program at Amravati District of Maharashtra with Water For People India Trust comes after Colgate’s previously successful implementation of Water initiatives in Bihar and West Bengal.
