USAID and Procter and Gamble have been partnering to provide clean drinking water and promote sanitation practices for some of Burma’s poorest residents.
Millions of the county’s people lack access to clean drinking water, and the effects of consuming unsafe water can be deadly. P&G’s water purifying packet can make undrinkable water clean and clear in just 20 minutes.
P&G has been providing clean drinking water for nearly a decade through its not-for-profit Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, sharing hundreds of millions of its award-winning P&G Purifier of Water packets to water insecure populations across the world. The packets contain 4 grams of powder that clean 10 liters of water. In April, the group announced it had transformed 7 billion liters of water. In November 2012, The Economist magazine recognized it as one of the world’s best social innovations. To date, this simple but powerful innovation has saved an estimated 37,000 lives and prevented over 280 million days of diarrheal illnesses across 75 countries.
In this photo, a child in the township of North Okkalapa learns how to drink water that has just been made safe by dissolving a packet and stirring.