Community Water Initiatives

Our community water programs are designed to support healthy watersheds and sustainable programs to balance the water used throughout our production process. We do this by working on a wide range of locally relevant initiatives, such as watershed protection; expanding community drinking water and sanitation access; agricultural water use efficiency; and education and awareness programs.

Together with our bottling partners, we collaborate with the United Nations Development Programme, Global Water Challenge, PlayPumps International, CARE , Ocean Conservancy and others to protect watersheds and support initiatives that bring clean water and sanitation to underserved areas. Since 2005, we have developed significant Community Watershed Partnerships, with more than 200 projects in 60 countries.

One of our largest collaborations is with the United States Agency for International Development and our bottling partners. Together in 2005, we formed the Water and Development Alliance to protect and improve the sustainability of watersheds, increase access to water supply and sanitation, and enhance productive use of water in 21 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Since inception, there has been a combined investment of $20.4 million. Our project in Angola helped construct 9 community water tap stands, providing 41,200 people with access to an improved water supply.

We are working with The Nature Conservancy to review our current community water initiatives and develop methodologies for quantifying their impact. We also are involved with the "Water Footprint Working Group" to develop standards and guidelines for water footprint accounting and to define the concept of water neutrality. This work complements our engagement with the CEO Water Mandate, a joint initiative of the United Nations Global Compact and the government of Sweden. The CEO Water Mandate seeks to build an international movement of committed companies working to develop strategies and solutions to help address the water challenges facing the world today.

Download a global map of where we are collaborating to address water challenges. (PDF)

Videos

Where the River Flows: Partnership in Action
Find out how our partnerships are preserving the freshwater river basin that feeds into the Mesoamerican Caribbean Reef.
View now »

Community Watershed Partnership
See how we are working with partners to provide safe water to primary schools in Western Kenya.
View now »

  Change your media player preferences here