TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jason Priestley, along with P&G and Walmart Canada, is asking socially-minded Canadians to join in the commitment to combat the global clean drinking water crisis this November. Since April 1, 2014, P&G, through the support of Canadians, has succeeded in donating over 15 million days of clean drinking water* to those in need by simply purchasing participating P&G products at Walmart Canada. However, with safe drinking water being a problem for more than an estimated 1 billion people every day, there is still much more to be done.
This November, P&G and Walmart Canada’s Clean Water program will be donating one day of clean drinking water for every participating P&G household product** purchased in Walmart stores or online at Walmart.ca. The hope is that this will help the program get even closer to its goal of providing at least 25 million days of clean drinking water by March 31, 2015.
Clean water advocate Jason Priestley recently visited rural batey communities in the Dominican Republic where he was able witness the impact of the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program first-hand, the non-profit effort that P&G and Walmart Canada clean drinking water initiative supports.
“As a dad and clean water advocate, it was heartbreaking to witness the need first-hand, but it also inspired me to continue to support this life-saving initiative,” said Priestley. “Clean water provided through the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program has been helping to save lives for over 10 years and is crucial to the future of many in the developing world. Socially-minded Canadians can help too by simply purchasing some of their favourite participating P&G household products at Walmart in the month of November.”
The impact of the Children's Safe Drinking Water Program is made possible by P&G Purifier of Water packets, a powdered water purifying technology developed by P&G to help reduce sickness and death resulting from drinking contaminated water. One small P&G water purification packet turns 10 litres of potentially deadly water into clean, drinkable water. Seven and a half billion litres of clean drinking water have been provided by humanitarian organizations across the globe using P&G packets – more than a litre for every person on the planet.
“With the clean drinking water initiative, it’s easy to make a positive, measureable impact on the lives of those in need,” said Lee Tappenden, chief merchandising officer at Walmart Canada. “Canadians can support the campaign just by doing their regular weekly shopping for their families.”
Canadians have already showed their overwhelming support, but there is still more to do. More than 1,600 children die every day from water-borne illnesses***.
“For a decade, P&G water purification packets have been a simple, life-changing solution, and now it is easy for Canadians to join in our goal to save one life every hour by 2020,” added Allison Tummon-Kamphuis, the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program leader. “Whether it’s a village in rural Dominican Republic,, a school program in Kenya, or flood relief in Cambodia we are committed to helping children and families affected by the global clean drinking water crisis.”
At the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative, P&G announced their intent to provide enough clean water to save one life every hour in the developing world. This can be made possible by the delivery of more than 2 billion litres of clean drinking water every year by 2020 – helping save an estimated 10,000 lives and preventing 80 million days of diarrheal illness on an annual basis. Since inception in 2004, the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) has partnered with more than 140 NGOs, charities and governments to raise awareness and deliver clean water.
To find out more about this program, please visit www.csdw.org and www.walmart.ca/cleanwater.
About Procter & Gamble
P&G serves nearly five billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Duracell®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, Wella® and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
About Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada operates a growing chain of 391 stores nationwide serving more than one million customers each day, as well as its flagship online store, www.walmart.ca, which is visited by over 400,000 Canadians daily. With more than 90,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada’s largest employers and is ranked one of Canada’s top 10 most influential brands. Walmart Canada’s extensive philanthropy program is focused on supporting Canadian families in need, and since 1994 Walmart has donated and raised more than $200 million to Canadian charities. Additional company information can be found at walmartcanada.ca, facebook.com/walmartcanada and at twitter.com/@walmartcanada.
* US$0.02 per purchase of P&G participating products at Walmart Canada
**For
more information about this program and a full list of participating P&G
products available at Walmart, visit walmart.ca/cleanwater.
***Source:
World Health Organization