Coca-Cola, CARE Announce Plans To Refresh Egyptian Communities With Access To Safe Water

On Aug. 9, Coca-Cola Egypt and CARE International, a nongovernment organization (NGO) operating in Egypt, announced their partnership to provide 1,500 households in the Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef with safe drinking water. Beni Suef is one of the poorest governorates in Egypt, where more than 9,000 households lack access to potable water.

The partnership aims to provide 7,500 people in three villages (one in the district of Sumusta, one in El-Koum El-Ahmar, and one in the district of Ahnasia) with clean water over the next 18 months. The project will also help raise community awareness through hygiene education campaigns. By working with Community Development Organizations (CDAs) in each village, local populations will be empowered to participate actively in the implementation of the project and thereby create a mechanism to address other issues affecting the community in the future.

"The project will not only focus on direct water connections for households, but will strive to engage in a multifaceted and continuous process to build local capacity to analyze problems and propose solutions, to raise awareness about hygiene and environmental issues that contribute to a significant improvement in community health for the inhabitants of Beni Suef," said Omar Mandour, General Manager, Coca-Cola Egypt, Libya and Sudan.

The Beni Suef project is part of RAIN (Replenish Africa Initiative), which is funded by The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. Responding to the challenge put forward by the United Nations in their Millennium Development Goals, the Foundation is funding water projects across the continent to assist countries in halving the number of people without access to clean water by 2015. The work is particularly important in Africa because many African countries are not currently on track to meet the UN goals.

"This engagement with the community around water is a key pillar of our Live Positively commitments in Egypt," Mandour continued. "I believe this project and others like it are important because they demonstrate that Coca-Cola not only produces quality products and creates good jobs in their communities, but is also working with other stakeholders to address some of the key challenges faced in this country. Particularly, as the Ramadan season begins, this investment is a shining example of Coca-Cola's long tradition of giving back to the community."

This is the second major water program supported by The Coca-Cola Company in Egypt. Previously, together with USAID Egypt, the Government of Egypt Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, UNICEF and the International Resources Group, we worked to improve the management of liquid and solid waste by constructing three wastewater treatment plants in the Gharbiya and Luxor governorates. Through this project, completed earlier in 2010, 80,000 rural Egyptians benefited from improved wastewater disposal practices and solid waste management.

CARE's alliance with Coca-Cola Egypt is an example of how partnerships between the private sector and NGOs can provide localized support to those with the greatest needs for water and sanitation services while ensuring water resources are managed to serve future generations.